A New Utopia
by The Lost Hokage
Summary: (DISCONTINUED) There are more deities than the Deity of Sin. One such Deity, the Deity of Knowledge, created the dimensions and everything within them to share her knowledge. This power was passed on from generation to generation, but the newest Deity harbors a hatred of humanity. How will the CPUs deal with this threat?
1. Prologue

This story is the remake of my first story, Imagine Utopia. Almost immediately after publishing and completing it, I realized that there were a whole bunch of things I didn't do the way I had originally planned (funny how that works out, right?). That's fine, though, since I can always just do this. I'm still debating if I want to delete Imagine Utopia, but I can always figure that out later. Anyways, onto some questions.

What is the purpose of this remake?

As I stated before, the original story didn't do very well at some things that I planned for it to excel in. A key example of this is the characters—specifically, ASJ. He just didn't get enough time to develop and make his motivations believable, while also making his eventual defeat believable. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm going to try and change that with this story. This also lays the groundwork for my next project, which I think you'll enjoy ;).

Will I need to read Imagine Utopia to understand this?

No. There will be no references or allusions to Imagine Utopia. This story completely stands on its own. In fact, given what I've already told you, I'd prefer it if you didn't read that one and just stuck to this one.

What will the upload schedule for this story be?

It's too early to say for certain, but it'll definitely be slower than before. Previously, it was rather sloppy—I'd upload every day, but I'd occasionally 'dump' my writing, uploading multiple chapters simultaneously. I would write my chapters very far in advance, for example, I would have uploaded everything up to Chapter 8, but have written everything up to Chapter 13. This time, I plan to take it much slower, giving myself time to properly write everything as I please.

Out of Imagine Utopia and A New Utopia, which one is 'canon'?

God, it feels weird to call my works canon. The short answer is that A New Utopia takes precedent. In future stories, I'll reference this story more often than Imagine Utopia, and in the unlikely event that I collaborate with someone else and give them permission to use ASJ, the version used will be the version that appears in this story.

With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!


	2. ASJ

It was a cold day in Lastation, unusually so for the time of year. Every so often, a chilly breeze would flow by, picking up and throwing into flight discarded newspapers or fallen leaves. Throughout the nation, people hurried in and out of office buildings and stores, conducting their daily routine as normal. Occasionally, some would stop and throw bread crumbs to the birds who were walking around the city's benches, watching as the animals pecked at the ground to eat the morsels.

Although there were many skyscrapers and towering industrial buildings throughout Lastation, the tallest structure by far was the dominant Basilicom, home to the nation's resident CPU and CPU Candidate. Similarly to the rest of the nation, it was painted in a sleek black color, almost as dark and imposing as a moonless night sky. All around the building were golden details that signaled power and authority, characteristics not unlike the goddess herself.

Just outside this Basilicom, on one of the nation's many benches, sat a lone man eating from a container of yogurt. Immediately, one might notice a few strange things about this man, the first being the rapidity with which he ate his yogurt. It seemed that he never stopped for breath in between mouthfuls as he shoveled the dairy delicacy into his mouth. The second suspicious characteristic was his attire. He was dressed in a black jacket that was unzipped around the chest despite the relative chilliness of the day. Underneath was a plain grey shirt that was thin enough to allow the wind to blow through it, but not so thin where it was transparent and revealing. His jacket reached to just a few inches above his ankles, so zipping the bottom half eliminated the need for leg-wear. His feet were covered with plain black socks and black house slippers, an odd choice of footwear for such an industrious nation.

All together, this man was very suspicious. His attire coupled with his proximity to the Basilicom was unsettling, and made him appear as a criminal. This was made exceedingly obvious by the civilians who passed him by and whispered under their breath about his off-putting characteristics. Once they were satisfied that he had so far done nothing harmful, they walked past and simply ignored him. This pattern continued for a good few minutes, with the man reaching into a cooler strapped to his back to eat more yogurt.

Once the streets had been mostly cleared of people, the man rose to his feet and walked toward the Basilicom doors. He stopped in front of the facial recognition system and removed his hood, revealing his jet black hair and chocolate-brown eyes. A blue beam of light scanned him three times, and the display above the camera showed a red 'X', denying his entry. Despite this, he still walked towards the door, and what happened next was strange.

Instead of simply colliding with the door, he appeared to walk into it, as his right foot and leg passed through the door and appeared on the other side. After another step, half of his body was inside the building, and the other half remained on the inside. A third step pulled him completely into the building, where the guards in the area all brandished their weapons.

"Sir! This is a restricted area! Turn back at once!" One of the guards yelled rather grossly, spraying spit through the air.

The man looked at him for about five seconds before he spoke, "I'd have done it if you didn't spit at me. That's very rude, you know." His voice was bland and monotone, lacking emotion.

The same guard swallowed firmly and spoke again, "This is no joking matter, civilian! You aren't granted access here! This is your last warning before we are authorized to use force!"

The man chuckled. "Is that right?" He spread his arms, as if he was preparing for a hug. "Then, by all means. Shoot."

The guards hesitated for a moment before they did so. As they shot, though, they found that their bullets simply passed through him, impacting the door and shattering the glass.

"The point of shooting is to hit your target. Try aiming straighter this time. Once more?" Although he was mocking them, the man's voice showed no indications of sarcasm.

The guard who had spoken to him before growled loudly and ran forward. He swung his weapon for the man's skull, only for it to pass through him as well and hit the ground with a metallic thud. He looked at the man with disbelief.

"H-how are you doing that? What are you?"

He smirked and grabbed the guard's weapon. "Nothing special, really. Would you like me to teach you?" He pulled the gun out of his hands and swung it into his skull, knocking him out. "You have to swing with force. Think of me as your…oh. He's unconscious."

The other guards looked at the man in disbelief. They backed into the walls and looked at each other with terror in their eyes, unsure of what to do. The man walked towards one of the guards, still holding the gun.

"I have an…appointment with Noire and Uni. Would you mind telling me where they are?"

The guard steeled himself. "I'll..I'll never tell you anything!"

He sighed. "That's what I feared you'd say." The man brought the gun's barrel in line with the guard's eye and fired, killing him. He walked over to the other guard, who was now thoroughly terrified.

"Do you wish to be more…cooperative?"

The guard gulped. "Y-you won't get it from m-me!"

"Not this again. All right, brace yourself." He fired a shot into the guard's chest, killing him as well. "I've made quite the mess…I guess I'll just go to them and leave this here."

He walked over to the elevator and called it. While he waited for it to arrive, he reached into his cooler and drew another container of yogurt from within. He began to eat with the same speed as when he ate it outside, finishing it just as the elevator arrived. He replaced the lid and stepped in, pressing the button to travel to the atrium. The ride was about five minutes long, accompanied by smooth jazz playing throughout the cab. Once the door opened, he found the chief of security conversing with Noire.

"That's the issue, my Lady. I saw it all over the security footage." He nervously wiped his brow.

The man wound up his arm and threw the empty container of yogurt directly into the back of the guard's head. Annoyed, he turned around, only for his eyes to widen in terror as he saw the threat he was just discussing appear from the elevator.

"It's rude to talk about people like they aren't there. If we're speaking about me, why don't I join in?" As the man approached, the security guard backed away in fear.

Noire rose from her chair and conjured her weapon to her hand. "I won't let you hurt anyone else. You're facing me!"

The man stopped short. "Well, it would certainly be an honor of the highest degree to do battle with a goddess." He craned his head to look at the guard. "I'll attend to you later."

Noire attempted to rush him while he wasn't paying attention, but her sword simply passed through his body as the guards' weapons did. She pulled her weapon back to her side and took a step back. "So that's the ability the guard mentioned."

The man adjusted his jacket. "It would appear to be so, yes. Now then…" He dropped the gun and raised his arms. "Are you ready?"

Noire did not respond, choosing instead to swing her blade once more. Before it could connect, however, the man's hand shot up and released a wave of energy, blowing her back and throwing away papers, books, and even her desk. Her back slammed against the wall, and she was further bombarded by documents and records. She dusted herself off and stood once more, taking a defensive stance.

"It looks like this will be tougher than I thought."

"Perhaps." He put his hands into his pockets. "What if I don't attack? I'll give you some free tries."

Noire hesitantly obliged, walking slowly forward. Once she was an arm's length away and the man had not moved from his spot, she began to attack. However, no matter which way she slashed, and no matter what techniques she used, none of her blows connected. While this was happening, the man simply smirked and watched Noire struggle in vain to strike him.

"Okay, now I'll attack. Are you ready?" Before Noire could respond, he wrapped his hand around her head and slammed her into the ground with such force that her impact kicked up pieces of the floor. He removed his hand and dusted himself off, allowing her time to recover and stand.

On the far side of the room, the elevator dinged and opened, revealing Uni, who had just returned from a quest in the plains of Lastation. Upon seeing her sister in the ground and a suspicious man above her, she immediately reacted by readying her gun and firing three shots. Her results did not differ from the guards', though, as the bullets phased through him and lodged themselves in the wall behind him.

The man turned his gaze to Uni. "Oh, Uni. It appears as if you've come at a bad time."

She glared at him. "I could say the same to you. What are you doing here?!"

He now turned his body to face her. "Well, I was initially trying to talk to you two, but the guards out front tried to shoot me. I had to respond, and this situation merely devolved from there."

Uni was in complete disbelief. "If you wanted to 'talk' with us, you would have scheduled a meeting! I'm not going to talk to someone who killed two of our guards and is trying to kill my sister!"

"Kill her? No, I wouldn't do that. However, you interest me." He faced Noire. "I wouldn't possibly kill you. However, I'm curious about something. Humor me, would you?"

She looked up at him. "What are you going to do?! What are you planning?!"

He smirked. "Simple." He took a step, and although he had quite obviously moved very little, the room seemed to shift and warp, placing him directly in front of Uni. The shock of this caused her to back into the wall. "Just watch."

He punched her right elbow, and the pain of this caused her to drop her gun. Taking advantage of this, the man wrapped his hand around Uni's throat and lifted her into the air. Her hands grabbed his wrist in an attempt to free herself from his choke. In response, he tightened his grip just a little, enough to force just a little more air out of her lungs.

The man stroked her hair with his free hand. "Don't be like that. All of your regrets, all of your pain, and all of your sorrow…it'll all be over soon. In this world, death is quite the mercy."

She attempted to speak, but he tightened his grip even further, preventing her from doing so. By now, her vision was beginning to fade as she tried desperately to take even a single breath. Her hands clawed at his wrist and her legs writhed and squirmed, but it was all for nought.

Behind them, though, Noire had stood up and transformed to HDD. She was now readying a definitive strike at the man, one which, if it connected, would surely be enough to stop him.

He did not seem to notice this, and his voice lowered. "Just relax. In just a few moments, you'll be free. If you stop fighting, it'll be less painful for you."

Just as Uni was about to lose consciousness, though, Black Heart flew towards the man and delivered a diagonal slash across his back, tearing through his jacket and coating her blade in his crimson blood.

"Gwooh!" The man coughed up blood and dropped Uni before he himself collapsed to his knees. Beneath him, a crimson pool had formed, reflecting his face.

Noire deactivated her transformation and walked over to Uni, who was still coughing and refilling her lungs with air. "Are you alright, Uni?"

Uni coughed once more before slowly rising to her feet. "Y-yeah, I'm alright."

The man was still on his knees, now barely conscious. "You…didn't hold back at all, did you?"

Noire was furious. "Of course not! You were trying to kill my sister!"

He chuckled. "One last thing before I go…I n-never introduced myself…" He could barely raise his hand to wipe blood from his mouth. "You…know me. I'm…ASJ. D-do you…remember…me…?" His eyes closed, and he collapsed to the ground.


	3. A Strange Visit

This was an experiment in longer chapters. This is substantially longer than what I normally do, but I figured it would help cut down on total chapter amount since I plan to add more content.

Uni stared at ASJ's motionless, bleeding body in disbelief. "No way…ASJ…?"

Noire walked over to her sister and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Uni? I know this is a lot to process."

After a pause, Uni nodded gravely. "I think I'll be okay."

There was another pause before Noire suddenly thought of an idea. "Why don't we patch him up and take him to the infirmary? I'm sure we both have questions we want answered."

Uni agreed without hesitation. "Got it."

The two goddesses picked up ASJ's limp body by either side and began carrying him down to the infirmary. Unfortunately, the lack of a stretcher or other such device made it so that he constantly leaked blood onto the floor, but this problem was diminished since the Basilicom had been specially designed so that the hospital was quickly reached from the atrium. Once they reached their destination, they set him down on the bed and got to work.

More handed her sister a thin booklet of instructions labeled 'Heavy Bleeding Slash/Stab Wounds'. "You're shaken up, so it'd probably be best if I worked the machinery. Can you read off the instructions for me?"

Uni nodded and rattled off the instructions. She watched as Noire applied an oxygen mask, wrapped bandages around the deep gash, and injected a special fluid into his bloodstream. She attached the probes for the cardiograph, and noticed that, while faint, he still had a measurable pulse.

Noire took a step back. "That should be it. Now, we just have to wait for him to stabilize."

The next minutes felt like years as the two goddesses pensively waited for ASJ to regain consciousness. The reading on the cardiograph slowly hastened, and eventually, his eyes opened.

"Well…damn. You…actually did it."

Uni was not amused. "What the hell, ASJ?! Why would you attack like that on our first meeting in years?!"

He took off the oxygen mask. "Even if I told you that, you wouldn't accept the answer. It's just the way you are sometimes, and it's something that I and everyone around you has come to accept."

"Don't just dodge my question like that! What could have possibly motivated you to do that?!"

ASJ sighed deeply. "There are some things goddesses simply cannot comprehend. Despite all of their power, their immortality limits their frame of mind. One of those things is loss."

Uni took a step closer. "What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say is that goddesses don't have to fear loss. All of your life, you are loved simply for existing. People line up for things as menial as breathing the same air as you. One loss destroys you. But for a mortal, loss is something we grow with. The world owes us nothing and expects everything, and we have to adapt and grow to keep up. Loss is something that you accept and overcome. That's life to a human."

Noire crossed her arms. "I think I get where this is going…"

He chuckled. "You're as sharp as ever." ASJ stretched his arms before he disconnected equipment from himself and stood up.

Uni was shocked. "You still need to heal! Don't move so much!"

ASJ turned around. A large diagonal scar was visible through the tear in his jacket. "I'll be alright. It'd be quite a boring story if I was stuck here for weeks, wouldn't it?"

"Not you too…" Noire let out a sigh. ASJ's comment reminded her of Neptune, and she couldn't help but internally groan.

"Well, I shall be seeing myself out. Farewell." Before either of them could protest, ASJ had slipped through the ground like an apparition, the only trace of his presence in the room being the indentations left in the mattress and pillow.

The two goddesses faced one another. Uni sighed and spoke first, "That's one way to reunite with an old friend."

Noire attempted to cajole her, "Don't worry too much. Why don't we put him on the watch list? His record will be cleared within Lastation, but other nations will still recognize him as a criminal."

Uni agreed. "Alright. Let's just hope he isn't planning on leaving the nation."

Meanwhile, ASJ had retired to a run-down clothes shop in the Kuro district. News of his attack on the Basilicom had not spread yet, meaning that he was temporarily free to move about in the nation. He opened the door, clinging a bell on his way in, and walked up to the cashier.

"Do you have a sewing machine I can borrow? My clothes sustained some rips and I wanted to repair them myself."

The cashier pointed to ASJ's left at a wall. "Fifteen minutes on the sewing machine is 75 Credits."

ASJ left without further response. He was careful to move in such a way that the cashier did not notice the large tear in the back of his jacket, and set to work on the machine. He put the jacket under the needle and worked with impressive finesse, patching the tear in about two minutes. He walked back up to the cashier and opened his wallet.

"It seems like you could use some money. I know you said only 75 Credits, but…" ASJ placed 1,000 Credits on the table. "I can't possibly turn a blind eye. Take this."

Before the cashier could protest, ASJ had left the store and began a walk towards the west. His goal was to get an idea of what the other CPUs were like in person, since he had only ever seen broadcasts of Noire and Uni in his lifetime. The first destination was Planeptune, since he wanted to determine why they consistently had the lowest Shares among the four nations. Next would be Lowee, and then finally Leanbox. Although the order didn't matter much, ASJ always liked having a sense of method, and attempted to make one even in the most chaotic of scenarios.

Generally, people never walked from one nation to the next unless it was a special occasion. Because of the distance between them, it was more efficient and preferable to drive in personal vehicles or fly in public airlines. However, ASJ seemed to circumvent this, as with every step he took, the space he was walking in warped as it did in the Lastation Basilicom, and within just a minute, he was outside the border of Planeptune.

Planeptune held stark contrasts with Lastation. While the latter had a dark, almost grim black color palette, the former was bright and vibrant, with every corner of the nation exuding life and friendliness. Just at the border, people were exchanging drinks and laughing with each other, standing underneath a large metal arch that had the words 'WELCOME TO PLANEPTUNE' written in a light purple. All around, speakers played music popular in the nation for all to hear, and some slightly intoxicated people began to dance. To top it all off, someone had taped an image of the nation's goddess to the arch with a pile of pudding cups beneath it, as if they were making a tribal offering to their god. In this case, it was rather appropriate.

ASJ walked up to a post where he was to be scanned and identified. As opposed to having a person operate this post, an AI was stationed within the computers. A camera scanned him, and turned out negative.

"Attention. National criminal ASJ is attempting to enter the nation. Guards are on their way now. Please remain calm."

ASJ let out a sigh and remained still. "I figured this would happen." He looked around and saw people running from him. "I suppose my reputation precedes me. Well, it can't hurt to see what they want."

Several Planeptune guards encircled him. One took half a step forward and said, "ASJ! You are under arrest for assault of a Basilicom and assault of a goddess!"

"Well, the Lastation guards found out what happens if you shoot me. I don't think you'd like to do the same."

The guard grew angry. "What are you trying to say?!"

ASJ put his hands in his jacket pockets. "Well, if you want to know so desperately, you'd have to shoot me." He smirked evilly.

"Don't think we won't use lethal force if you don't stand down!"

ASJ's smirk faded. "I'm already beginning to think that. If you're so curious, just shoot and find out."

One of the guards lost composure and fired. To his amazement, the bullet slipped through ASJ's body and flew through him, flying just a few inches to the left of another guard's chest. He fired again, and the same thing happened, but when the bullet was on course for another guard's stomach, ASJ reached out his hand, sending a small wave of force that stopped the bullet in midair.

"So, you now know what happens when you try and shoot me. Why not just call the goddess down here and have her deal with this? I grow disinterested the longer I stand here."

The guard who fired upon him yelled, "We're not going to let you see the goddess that easily! It's…"

ASJ had opened his hand and, from his palm, a strange black rod grew and impaled the guard through his stomach. He clenched his fist, and the rod bent and twisted to wrap around his limbs and toss him to the side. "Does anyone else wish to speak up?"

Another guard began to open his mouth, but another black rod emerged from ASJ's palm and punctured through the back of his head. Again, it bent and twisted to do the same as it had to the first guard. "Now, I'm not planning on harming your goddess. I simply wish to…converse. You wouldn't deny that, would you?"

The remaining guards backed away in fear. Some dropped their weapons, and one began to run into the city to escape. ASJ walked towards one of the remaining guards and plucked his radio from his uniform. He tuned it to the Basilicom's frequency and put his mouth near the recorder.

"We have a situation at the border. Additional reinforcements required."

A voice responded, "Understood. Help is on the way. Neptune! You have work to do!"

ASJ chuckled to himself and broke the radio before scattering the pieces among the grass. He sighed and said, "Unfortunately, your presence would ruin our meeting. Would you like to leave, or would you like for me to kill you?"

The guards unanimously agreed to leave. ASJ held out his hands and pulled their radios to his palms before throwing them on the ground and firmly stomping them. The guards looked on in shock until ASJ waved his hand for them to leave. They did so, leaving him by his lonesome outside the city gate. Taking the time to relax, he sat down in the grass and looked up to the sky, watching the clouds move by. In that moment, he lost himself in time, and he almost fell asleep.

"Hey! You called?" Neptune was running out to the border, but stopped short when she saw only ASJ. "Uh…did you call?"

He stood up. "Yes, I did. The guards were very cooperative and left when I asked them to." He put his hands in his pockets again. "Did your sister get forced out with you?"

Nepgear ran out as he said this. "Neptune! Wait up!" She stopped when she saw her sister talking with a man she had never seen before. "Are…you the one who radioed the Basilicom?"

"Indeed I am. However, you can quite clearly see that I am not a guard. I'm here for a much different purpose." He cleared his throat. "I wish to…"

Neptune interrupted him. She accusatively pointed a finger at him. "I get it! This is an elaborate assassination plan! You lured us out here so you could try and kill us like any generic villain!" She drew her sword. "Well, it isn't gonna work!"

ASJ shot another black rod out of his palms and wrapped it around Neptune's sword. "On the contrary. I'm only here to speak with you. From birth, I lived my entire life in Lastation, and as such, I've been quite isolated from the rest of the world. It's always been my goal to meet the other CPUs."

Nepgear readied herself. "So why didn't you schedule a meeting? If you just wanted to talk, you didn't have to make such an elaborate plan."

"Well, normally I would have done exactly as you said. But, I…caused something of a scene in Lastation and now the other three nations are out to get me."

Neptune still held onto her sword, attempting to pry it from the strange black rod. "A-ha! The truth reveals itself! You tried to kill Noire and failed, so now you're here to try it again! I knew I was right from the beginning!"

ASJ was growing angry. He shot another black rod, but stopped it about half an inch away from Neptune's face, prompting her to crane her neck backwards to avoid it. "If that is what you wish, then so be it. I grow tired of this elementary exchange."

Nepgear tried to resolve the situation. "Please, we don't need to fight! You said you were here to talk, right? I'll answer your questions, just don't hurt my sister."

ASJ retracted the rods and walked over to her. "It's a promise, then. First, I will explain a little bit about myself, since your curiosity is probably immeasurable by now. Then, I wish to ask a few questions about you two."

Neptune put away her sword. "Fine, but I don't trust this. If you're anything like our past baddies, you'll just stab us in the back when we aren't expecting it!"

Nepgear began to chastise her. "Neptune, you aren't helping! He's already said he just wants to talk!"

ASJ rubbed his forehead in irritation. "Good to see that one of you has an IQ in the triple digits." He put his hands back into his pockets. "Anyways, shall we begin?"

Neptune put her hands behind her head. "Yeah, enough of the suspense building. Let's just talk already."

He looked at her with extreme disappointment, but averted his gaze. "So, my name is probably the first thing you want to know. It's ASJ."

There was a pause before both of them realized what he had just said. "W-what?!"

"I figured you would say that. Yes, I am ASJ, the national criminal who attacked the Lastation Basilicom, killed several guards, and attempted to kill the CPU Candidate. Although, I never took much of an interest in law."

Nepgear realized the implications of this. "Why? Why would you do something like that?"

ASJ slumped his shoulders. "I could easily take up a chapter explaining that. For now, I could simplify it by saying…"

Before he could finish, a portal opened, dropping two girls about three meters above the ground. They landed with a crash, one on top of the other. After a few seconds, they helped each other up, grumbling to themselves in irritation.

ASJ spoke again, his voice devoid of emotion as usual. "Splendid, more idiots. And who would you be?"

A fiery red-haired girl spoke up first. "The name's Uzume. Uzume Tennouboshi. And don't think I didn't hear what you said just now!"

The other one, who bore a strange similarity to Neptune, spoke next. "And I'm Neptune. You can tell me apart from little me by…"

"Your hair length, different attire, height, and bust size. I'm not a fool."

The shorter Neptune voiced her grievances. "Hey, in terms of chest area, I like to think that that's what I'll be like when I grow! In fact, that may as well be an adult me! Don't you know what the fans call her?"

ASJ sighed loudly. "I was originally going to ask these two some questions," he gestured towards the shorter Neptune and Nepgear, "but now you have my curiosity. How and why did you appear so far above the ground?"

The taller Neptune eagerly responded by showing him the Nep-Note. "I use this to collect bugs, and I've got a special fairy one called Crostie! She helps us travel through dimensions, but she always puts us so far above the ground and screws up our entry."

A voice spoke from within the book spoke out, "Yeah, 'cause you never let me out of this damn book! I'm…"

ASJ silenced her. "Enough of that. I'm sure many people want to strangle you, and I am included in that group." He turned to face Planeptune. "Why don't we continue this in the Basilicom? It'll be good to escape from further distractions."

They did so, making haste towards the towering building. Like the rest of the nation, the Basilicom of Planeptune held significant differences with the one found in Lastation. As opposed to being a dark, imposing black, this one was a clean white, with purple streaks running through the sides. The building almost personified the nation's meteoric progress in consumer electronics and high-grade technology, the sleek sides gleaming in the sun. Something about it signaled progress, which was fitting given the nation's title of 'The Land of Purple Progress'.

The five reached the door and, before the shorter Neptune could open it, ASJ fell halfway through the ground. He explained, "The guards likely know all about me by now. It'll be better this way."

Before anyone could protest, he had already pulled himself completely into the ground. The shorter Neptune, confused as to how he did this, voiced her perplexity, "H-how did he do that? Is he a ghost in disguise?!"

ASJ resurfaced. "I doubt the author…er, I doubt that the powers that be would go that far. I'm a human." He fell through again.

The door was opened for them by a guard who had noticed who they were. As the goddesses and the taller Neptune walked in, he took a bow and removed his cap—a proper show of deference for a guard like him. Everyone made their way to the atrium, and ASJ crawled into the elevator from the underground. After a minute, everyone had collected in the main atrium to continue discussion.

ASJ spoke first, "So, I had already stated my identity as ASJ. To our two new arrivals, that means I'm technically a national criminal responsible for the death of several Lastation Basilicom Guards as well as the attempted murder of the Lastation CPU Candidate."

Uzume clenched her fist. "Hmph. But…"

"Why, right?" Uzume was taken aback by the accuracy of ASJ's prediction. "Well, it's a very long story. The best way to summarize it is to say that I wanted to…die."

Everyone was silent for a moment before the shorter Neptune spoke first, "You wanted to die? Are we properly rated for that stuff?"

ASJ's face remained deadpan as usual. "Probably. It's rated as high as it can go, anyway." He slumped his shoulders even more than normal. "Anyways, enough meta. I wanted to die, and I believed that Noire would do that if I pushed her. Unfortunately, the only way I could do that whilst making it look natural was to…" He grimaced. "Try and kill Uni."

Nepgear looked at him curiously. "Well, why did you want something so horrible?"

"I'm sorry. I just…it gets so difficult to conjure the words. I've made enough of a scene as it is, and I'd hate to cause any more commotion." ASJ's normally blank face was now overcome with a frown as he looked to the ground.

Just then, Histoire floated in, carrying a bag filled with cups of pudding and miscellaneous batteries. "Hello, everyone. I…" She stopped as she saw ASJ, and as he looked at her. "Is this ASJ?"

His face returned to normal. "So, my reputation precedes me once again. Yes, I am ASJ. I am the despicable criminal responsible for...you know this already. Why am I still telling you this?"

Histoire handed off the bag to Neptune, who grabbed one of the pudding cups before putting the rest in the refrigerator. "I didn't expect to find you in the Basilicom. Since everyone is unharmed, I take it you're not here to cause trouble?"

"You'd be right in that. I simply wished to speak with the two goddesses, but it seems as though I got a little bit more than I bargained for. I was planning on leaving soon."

The shorter Neptune finished her pudding and spoke, "Well, it was certainly a change of pace to meet you. Are you gonna come back?"

ASJ rubbed the back of his head. "Possibly. I was going to go to all four nations, and then determine if I wanted to move out of Lastation."

Neptune threw away the pudding container with impressive accuracy. "Well, looks like I've gotta somehow convince you to move out of Lonely Heart's territory. Should be simple for someone like me!"

He stared at her blankly. "You're not helping your case." He took a deep breath and continued, "I have postponed my exit long enough. With no more delays, I shall be going."

Nepgear smiled and waved goodbye. "Good to see you!"

Without further response, ASJ pulled himself through the ground and was gone.


	4. Ancient Legends

Lowee is recognized throughout Gamindustri as a sort of winter wonderland, a place where children can run and frolic in the snow without a care in the world. The entire nation is somewhat built around this theme, as magic is more commonly used here than in any of the other nations. To add onto this, many of the buildings have an almost cartoonish design, reminiscent of what one might see in a children's video game. With all of these factors put together, it makes sense that Lowee is always rated as the best nation for the safety and well-being of children.

Recently, due to the debacle with the License System and Azna=Leb, Blanc decided to loosen security to allow the public to regain composure. This allowed ASJ to enter the country with little difficulty, as the only thing threatening to stop his entrance were two security guards that he easily bypassed. Now, he was standing in the snow with his head facing the sky, allowing the snowflakes to hit his face and melt. As a child, he loved the snow, but since it rarely ever snowed in Lastation, he did not get the opportunity to enjoy it very much.

After a few minutes like this, he pulled his head back to the street and looked around. He saw a group of children throwing snowballs at each other and merrily skipping in the snow. Watching this, he picked up a clump of snow and began to mold it into various shapes. The people around him who were of age to judge him gave him such judging looks, wondering to themselves why a grown man would be making a snowball. Eventually, ASJ dropped it and headed towards the library, hands red from exposure to the snow.

The outside of the building was similar to what any library would appear as, but on the inside, it felt and looked much more spacious. Shelves of books stretched as far as the eye could see, towering three meters above the ground. Eager readers walked along elevated platforms to reach the tomes of knowledge hidden above, and people of all ages walked upon the faded green carpets along the floor. ASJ silently mused to himself about how only the strongest nation could be attuned to both technology and literature, and began to search for a book to read. He walked in between the shelves, scanning around for something he hadn't read that ignited his interest. Eventually, he selected a book and sat down at one of the many desks in the library.

Before he could open the book, a voice spoke to his right. "Are…you ASJ?"

He sighed and put the book down. He sounded especially tired when he talked. "Yes, I am. The despicable, horrible, inhuman criminal who attacked…"

Blanc came into view and interrupted him. "So what book are you reading?"

ASJ was silent for a few seconds as he tried to comprehend what was going on. "This…is a book about the past. It's a compilation of legends regarding the Deity of Knowledge." He felt its cover before looking up at her. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to erase me from existence yet. Everywhere else I've gone today has done something against me."

She adjusted her hat. "Well, you haven't done anything yet. As long as you don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine."

"I wasn't planning on it." He began to read the book, but set it down in discomfort. "Are you here by yourself?"

"Yeah. I left my sisters at the Basilicom so I could write in peace. They have a habit of breaking my concentration when I'm in a pivotal scene."

ASJ chuckled. "I understand that feeling. I'm not much of a writer myself, but whenever I did try, I always found my fragile concentration shattered by some outside force. However, it was…" He stopped himself and looked down.

Blanc looked at him curiously. "You were saying? About that outside force?"

He shook his head and directed his gaze back to the book of legends. "I'm simply dreadful with children. They have such an abundance of energy and I just can't keep up. Being able to keep up with two is a highly laudable feat."

She looked at the cover of his book. "You get used to it eventually. Sometimes, that excitement is nice to have around. Other times, it's a pain to deal with. It's just a fact of life."

ASJ remained silent for a few moments. When he finally spoke, his voice was strangely quiet. "Have you ever heard the myth of the Deity of Knowledge?"

"…No. What's with the sudden question?"

"Your commentary on the duality of children brought it to my mind. I've only heard some details, but what I do know is remarkably fascinating." He cleared his throat before continuing, "According to the legend, the Deity of Knowledge was the very first thing to have ever existed. She knew everything about everything, and owned a personal dimension called Biblio, a library that documented all of this knowledge. One day, she grew tired of being alone and wished to share her knowledge with someone."

Despite not believing in the story, Blanc was interested. "So…how? If it was just her, then how did she do it?"

He smiled. "That's the most interesting part. If the legend is to be believed, then each Deity has an ability exclusive and specific to them. The Deity of Sin's, for example, was to grow more powerful with the hatred and contempt of mankind. The Deity of Knowledge…" His eyes contained a sparkle that was in stark contrast to anything that anyone had seen of him before. "She held the ability to create."

"To…create?" Blanc needed a moment to let this set in.

"Yes. She created the very first dimension, the Hyper Dimension. She made it a natural heaven, where billions of different species of plants and animals interacted. Eventually, of course, the human evolved from these animals, and this was the perfect time for her to share her knowledge."

She scoffed. "I know it's just a myth, but…that can't possibly make sense. There are documents in Lowee's libraries of how the ancient people learned and changed. How could they do that if they received knowledge from this Deity?"

ASJ replaced the book on the shelf and sat back down. "If we are to take the myth as fact, it is possible that she did not directly share her knowledge, and she instead created a being capable of learning and appreciating it. Eventually, when the first people conglomerated together and formed civilization, it was obvious that a ruler was needed. This was when the Deity used the second element to her power…change."

Blanc immediately understood. "So she made the first CPUs. But then, what about the True Goddess? Wasn't she the original goddess that split into the four goddesses, or something along those lines?"

"You are correct. The Deity decided to make one ruler, one being who came closest to her omnipotence. That being was the True Goddess. However, as you know, the True Goddess was split into four parts, each representing different facets of the original's personality and mannerisms. This is why the four of you goddesses are so starkly different."

"So that was true." Blanc shook her head. She thought to herself, "I'm getting ahead of myself. This is just another superstition."

ASJ continued, "Eventually, the Deity decided that the time was right to pass her power onto the next generation. She chose a candidate for the power, and that person held all of the power that she once did. This process happened once more, and that is when we arrive at the third candidate. The third holder of the powers of the Deity was ruthless and full of hatred. She hated humanity for ruining the natural utopia that the first Deity had made."

"So it was like Rei Ryghts but older and on a larger scale."

He thought for a moment. "I suppose you could say that. The third Deity used the third and final facet of the Deity's power—destruction. Using her willpower, she threatened to erase all of humanity. It took the combined power of the four goddesses as well as all of humanity to stop her. From then on, the name of Deity of Knowledge was one held with hatred and contempt by all of humanity. Unfortunately, though, there must always be a Deity of Knowledge due to the curse the third Deity placed on the power. So, the power was passed on, and if anyone discovered a Deity, they attempted to kill them."

Blanc was taken aback. "I get why they'd hate the Deity, but…for them to go so far?"

ASJ gravely nodded. "After a time, the Deity was so troubled by the public's hatred of her that she decided to seal herself away for good. She agreed with the goddesses to strike the name of the Deity of Knowledge from history forever, and so it was. People forgot about the tale, and now it is merely a campfire story. The only reason we know about it now is because the ban on the name was undone due to a spike in interest in the legend. If not for that, I can say with certainty that we would have no knowledge of this legend today."

She blinked for a few seconds. "It was a nice story, but why exactly did you bring it up?"

"You mentioned the duality of children, and I expanded the concept internally. I looked at the duality of humanity."

"W-what exactly do you mean?"

ASJ looked at her, his face as deadpan as usual and his voice the usual bland rumble. "Humans are strange. One moment we wage war, and the next we make a peace committee that vows to outlaw that same concept. We make deadly and efficient new weapons to hurt each other while also making miraculous medical advancements that help to heal the injuries we create. We're an odd species—we can't seem to conclusively decide whether or not we want to help or hurt others. Our future is almost always at risk because of our own actions and thoughtlessness, but we always manage to come back from the brink somehow." He paused for breath before continuing, "We've certainly made our mistakes, but I think that leaves us with all the more room to grow."

Blanc was unsure of what to say. Noticing this, ASJ wryly laughed. "My apologies. I talked for far too long. Why not resume your writing? In fact, I think I'll give you some pointers based on my past experience."

"Thanks, but I don't need your help. I've managed on my own so far."

ASJ ignored her and stood up, making his way towards the computer area. "Tell me, how many famous authors have ever denied peer review?"

Blanc knew where he was going. "None, but…"

"Exactly. Now come." He continued to walk towards the computers, and when he chose one, he gestured for her to sit. Reluctantly, she did so and logged in. Once that was done, she opened her documents and selected her story. A document of about three pages opened.

"Blanc…" ASJ took a deep breath. "This…is terrible. How in Gamindustri did you manage to misspell Gamindustri? Not only that, but this original character is so overpowered that it's a wonder they haven't already won. I wouldn't be surprised if they made a harem for themselves either, given their perfect personality."

"Then how would you advise I fix it, editor?!" She placed especial scorn on her last word to emphasize his lack of editorial license.

"Simple." He was either oblivious to the implications of this, or did not care. "First, you have to describe the character. For example, when I was being described, the author placed huge emphasis on the amount of black I wear."

Blanc took a deep sigh. "I think you spent too much time with Neptune."

He ignored her. "You'll also have to describe the setting. For example, if the story were set in Lowee, you could say 'Lowee is recognized throughout Gamindustri as a sort of winter wonderland, a place where children can run and frolic in the snow without a care in the world'."

"Not again…"

He chuckled. "Things sort of line up after that. First, elaborate on the character. Then, build the setting. It's a simple beginning, and you don't even have to plan much afterward. If you just let your ideas flow with only minimal restraint, you can have a somewhat coherent story."

Blanc typed for a few moments, allowing her ideas to flow as ASJ instructed. After a moment, though, she stopped and looked at him. "That legend about the Deity of Knowledge that you shared…where can I find it? I'd like to read it for myself."

"Well, this library has a collection of legends about the Deity. I'm sure the one about their history would be included." He took a seat next to her. "Otherwise, I'm not opposed to reciting it again."

"I don't think that'll be necessary. Lowee's libraries are quite expansive, after all." She gave a chuckle of pride as she resumed typing.

"I did notice that. The size and diversity of these libraries are quite impressive. However, that may be a precocious judgement, as I have yet to see the libraries outside of the capital. I'm sure they won't disappoint, however." He adjusted his jacket and logged onto a computer, but not before Blanc could stop him.

"Are you sure you should do that? Log in, I mean. I'm sure that the database would recognize your criminal activity."

ASJ gave a nod of approval as he pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket. "You're correct in saying that. To circumvent that issue, I'm using someone else's information. They gave me permission to use this a while ago, so no need to concern yourself with that detail."

She looked back to her own screen and resumed typing. "What are you using the computer for, anyways?"

"I'm going to look up something to do to pass my time. Becoming a national criminal left me wing quite a bit of extra time, and I've been at a loss as to how to occupy it. I was hoping I could do something scientific, since I rarely get to indulge myself in that, but…I suppose it will have to wait."

Blanc chuckled and looked at him again. "You should go to Planeptune. Nepgear, the CPU Candidate there, can't get enough of that stuff. Histoire always ends up cleaning after her."

"Really? I was just in Planeptune last chap-er, just a little while ago. I had no idea Nepgear had a parallel interest in the sciences, although I should have expected it given the fact that she was the only one out of the four who carried herself with any decency in mannerism." He winced as he recalled his dealings with both Neptunes and Uzume.

"So you ran into Neptune, huh? Both of them? Now you see what us CPUs have to deal with on a regular basis. It gets freakin annoying." Blanc said this with an obvious touch of rage.

"I don't doubt you. It's simply miraculous that Histoire hasn't died of an aneurysm yet." He rubbed his forehead. "Seeing those two, I wonder how the nation hasn't died in a spectacular fashion."

"It's usually Histoire and Nepgear who have to get their hands dirty. Meanwhile, Neptune gets to stay in her Basilicom, eating and gaming the days away."

"My sympathy goes out to them, then. Handling someone with such a laughably low intelligence must be a feat of strength." ASJ scanned the screen quickly before logging out of the computer. "My apologies. I'm sure that you had no intention of speaking with a criminal for this length of time. Not only that, I also distracted you from your writing. I shall be seeing myself out now."

Blanc shook her head in disapproval. "It wasn't a problem, really. It was surprisingly interesting to talk with you."

He stopped for a moment. "I spoke too soon. Would it bother you if I asked one more question?"

"It…depends on what that would be, I suppose. What's up?" She stopped typing to devote her attention to him.

"It's just…I've asked some people this before, but I haven't gotten a complete, conclusive answer. I thought you'd be a good person to turn to. So, here it is…would you sacrifice your life to save the lives of hundreds?"

She answered immediately. "Of course I would. It's part of my job as a CPU."

He looked at her and tilted his head curiously. "I'm not interested in your answer as a CPU. I want to know what you might do if you were just another person who had a chance to take action."

Blanc thought for a while before beginning, "It depends on the situation, but I think I would. It's the right thing to do."

"You're saying that it's the right thing to do because that's what you've accepted all your life. In an instance where all of that ceases to matter, what would you do? What will happen when you're the one responsible for the fates of many?"

There was an uncomfortable pause. "I think…I think I'd still do it. It's one for hundreds. It only makes sense."

He looked at her, as if to see if she had any doubts about her choice. When he was satisfied, he began, "Interesting. Very interesting. I ardently wish to continue this, but I had promised to ask only one more question. With no more postponements, I shall be on my way. Farewell."

Before Blanc could react, ASJ was already on his way out of the library. Not wishing to raise her voice, she instead turned back to the screen and resumed work on her story. She typed with impressive speed, using the advice that ASJ had given her. Although she was wary of him, it seemed as though her story had taken an increase in quality, so she was willing to accept his words, if nothing else. She looked at the seat where ASJ had been and saw a sheet of paper that was folded in half, obviously containing some sort of message. She reached over and unfolded it, eyeing the words on it closely.

Dearest Lady Blanc,

Please know that this is the first and only time I will address you as 'Lady', as it feels much to unnatural for me. With that out of the way, I would like to begin this letter.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to my ramblings. I took quite a bit of time speaking about the Deity of Knowledge, and then even more about the self-sacrificial issue. I am aware that speaking with a criminal was not your ideal way of spending your time, and even though you denied it when I raised the issue, you almost certainly had something you would have rather done with that time. In recompense, I have attached a ticket for the next author's venue in Lowee that the author couldn't be bothered to describe me buying. I hope you will make full use of it.

Your twin sisters are probably on their way now. I left because I did not want to cause them panic, since they would have recognized my face and would not have filtered their reaction as you did. In addition, I mentioned previously that I have atrocious etiquette with children, so it was probably best I leave anyway. For them, I have attached two pieces of candy to the back of this letter. I haven't the slightest clue as to what their favorites are, so I purchased the top name in Lowee chocolate. I hope that they enjoy it (it's milk chocolate, obviously. Only masochists or lowlifes eat dark chocolate).

I recognize that I am wasting more time with this letter than I was in the library, so I shall end it now. In all likelihood, this was just a way for the author to hit an arbitrary word count goal that he set for himself. If you ever see him, please erase him from existence for doing this.

Sincerely, ASJ

Blanc chuckled and balled up the letter, having no further use for it. She got up to threw it away and, according to ASJ's prediction, Rom and Ram were visible in the doorway, waving widely for her. She smiled upon seeing them and made her way towards them.

"Hey, Blanc! Mina sent us to make sure you hadn't died or something. What's taking you so long?" Ram, the more energetic of the two twins, had barely waited for Blanc to reach them before speaking out.

"Sorry about the delay. I was talking with…" She stopped herself before saying his name. "I was talking with an old friend."

Ram now wore a mischievous smile. "Ooh, who is it? I bet it's some attractive guy who isn't really your 'friend' but…"

Blanc cut her off. She was beginning to grow irritated. "Who it was is none of your business!" Remembering the chocolate left on the letter, she calmed herself down and reached into her coat. "They left some chocolate for you. I'm hesitant to give it to you, knowing our nation's people, but…I think it will be okay. Let me try it, though."

The twins waited in eager silence as Blanc unwrapped one of the chocolates and broke off a very small piece. She popped it into her mouth and chewed slowly, waiting for any adverse effects. When she was satisfied that the chocolate was normal, she handed it to her sisters and allowed them to begin. They speedily ate the squares of chocolate, their faces lighting up as they did so. Blanc watched contentedly, silently musing to herself.

"Hmm…for a criminal like him, he's not too bad." Blanc silently thought to herself as she ushered her sisters back home.


	5. A New Beginning

ASJ wandered through the cold streets of Lowee, unsure of what to do next. He had visited three of the nations, but going to Leanbox would raise complications. Going by boat as normal would be impossible due to the security there, and using his strange power to instantly move there would be noticed more quickly than in the other nations. He ruminated on this conundrum for a while before coming to the conclusion that it would be best to not travel to Leanbox and avoid difficulties. Ever since his attack on the Lastation Basilicom, he had grown tired of the sight of blood, and wished to avoid it as much as possible until he had mentally braced himself for the image.

He turned back and saw the three goddesses exiting the library, the younger two happily eating their chocolate. The corners of ASJ's mouth perked up a little bit before returning to normal, and he muttered to himself, "They're so lovable…"

After this, he looked up to the sky and allowed the snow to fall upon his face once more. He stayed like this for quite some time, his jacket becoming coated with the white powder. After about five minutes, he pulled his eyes back to the ground and decided to return to Planeptune. His curiosity had been piqued by Blanc's passing comment about Nepgear's technological tastes, and he could not help but wonder what she made with her prowess. He began to make his way there, but after taking just two steps, the space around him warped and pulled him directly above the Planeptune Basilicom's balcony.

Unfortunately for him, he had accidentally placed himself several meters above the floor, and was now free-falling from very high in the sky. He began to wonder what went wrong in his transportation, but as he did so, he failed to notice that he was growing ever closer to his impending collision. After what felt like several minutes, he met the ground with a deafening thud, sinking about a foot and kicking up dust and metal.

"Nep?! What just happened?!" Hearing the commotion, Neptune paused her game and ran outside, stopping suddenly when she saw ASJ laying face-first in the balcony.

"Goodness! Are you alright?" Nepgear followed suit, tailed closely by Histoire.

ASJ groaned to signal his consciousness, but did not move. Whether this was out of pain or lassitude was yet to be seen, but either way, he remained laying for quite some time. "How do you do it…?" Everyone merely gave him a confused look, so he clarified, "How can you fall these distances…and remain unscathed…"

Neptune knew immediately that he was referring to her. "Well, the first step is being a goddess! Something tells me that mortal bodies were not meant for this stuff!"

He slowly pushed himself out of the hole he had made, with assistance from Nepgear and Neptune on either side. Once standing, he dusted his hands and groggily spoke, "You…may be wondering…why I'm back here. I visited Lowee, and Blanc made…a passing comment about your…taste for science, Nepgear. I was…deeply interested."

Nepgear seemed to light up immediately upon hearing this. "Really?! Then, let me show you my lab! It's a state-of-the-art research and experimenting room filled with modern equipment!" She happily walked back into the Basilicom, supporting ASJ.

"I wouldn't have it any other way. Onward." He slowly reoriented himself and regained independent posture.

Histoire was quick to inadvertently destroy the lighthearted mood, "Don't forget about that quest that you and Neptune have to do, Nepgear. I'll give you…three hours to work, but after that I have to ask that you continue to work."

Nepgear was not disheartened whatsoever by this. "Got it. Let's go, ASJ. To the lab!" She quickly skipped ahead, and ASJ struggled to keep up with her giddy pace.

"Please, dear. I'll need you to wait."

Neptune waved her hands frantically. "'Dear'?! Just what do you mean by that? Is there something you haven't told me?"

He looked at her and chuckled. "It's simply…a show of deference. For someone like me, romance is and will always be a dream." ASJ hobbled on his feet and walked back into the Basilicom. By now, Nepgear had completely left the vicinity.

Histoire floated in after them, beckoning for Neptune to follow. Once everyone was inside and Neptune had closed the door behind her, havoc was already beginning to commence within Nepgear's lab. From within, loud sounds of machinery drowned out all other noise, and what sounded like a Dogoo's pained yelp was also heard. ASJ, now fully upright, stared at the door in fear and did not take another step forward.

"Is it always like this when she begins her work?"

Neptune tore off the seal on a pudding container and balled it up, throwing it into the trash once again, her aim no less impressive. "Yep. Sometimes we hear even weirder sounds. I think there was…I'm not going to say anything." She stopped herself before accidentally saying something she might regret.

ASJ nodded in comprehension. "I'm sure everyone knows what you're talking about. It's best not to go there, though." He turned back to the laboratory door. "Well, I've been keeping Death waiting for long enough. Here I go, and forward I march." He hesitantly turned the knob and opened the door, and immediately upon doing so, he was forcefully pulled into the room. The door slammed shut behind him with such force that it caused Neptune to jump in the air from shock.

"Nep! What just happened?!" She barely managed to stick out her hand and catch the falling pudding.

"I'm not sure, but I'm sure ASJ will be fine. He had that strange ability to phase through matter, after all." Histoire floated over to a filing cabinet and began working, an act that juxtaposed intensely with Neptune's lax gaming.

"Oh right! I completely forgot about that! Histy, you're a smart one, right? Do you have any idea how he did that?"

Histoire turned her attention back to Neptune and shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. In all my years of life, I've never seen anything quite like that. When he talked with you two, Uzume, and the other Neptune, did he let on any clues as to what this power was?"

Neptune put her hand to her chin, still holding the now half-empty pudding. "Not that I can remember. What's the big deal, anyway? I'm sure it's just another one of those poorly implemented OC powers whose backstory only gets the slightest bit of development." Upon finishing her sentence, she resumed eating, and the corners of her mouth lifted as she did so.

The Oracle groaned at Neptune's meta tendencies. "If that were the case, Neptune, many humans would have such powers, but that is not the case. This is clearly something unique."

The two thought for quite a while. After some time, Neptune wound up her arm and tossed the empty pudding container into the trash with technique reminiscent of a sports player. "Who knows? Maybe he's got the power of some unexplained, overpowered Deity or something." She took her place on the couch and resumed her game. "If this is anything like normal, we'll get our explanation in a few chapters or so."

Histoire did not want to expend any more energy complaining about Neptune. "I hope you're right. I'm not sure why, but I find myself unnerved by this development." She resumed her work, and the topic was dropped shortly thereafter.

Within Nepgear's lab, chaos was ensuing. Machines moved and fell throughout the lab, and volatile chemicals were lain in highly unsafe areas and positions. The CPU Candidate stood at a table with various parts laid out in front of her, an instruction manual for some kind of robot to her left. She didn't seem to care about the rest of her lab being consumed by destruction and havoc, but ASJ certainly did. He frantically ran about, vainly attempting to restore order to the situation. He would set something upright, only for a machine to inadvertently knock it over once more, or he would place test tubes in the proper rack, only for the intense vibrations within the room to knock them over again.

"Dear goddess, how do you work in this place? There's absolutely no order here." ASJ gave up on trying to organize the room and simply took his place next to Nepgear.

"Really? I've never noticed it was that bad before. Besides, this gives me the opportunity to see my creations and inventions in action." Nepgear was oddly enthusiastic about the matter.

ASJ sighed, understanding that it was hopeless to try and argue. "Well, I have good news. I was in Lowee's library, and I read a book on the history of robotics in household use." Before he had even finished his thought, Nepgear perked up and was listening intently. "Although most of the designs are discarded and…illegal…it wouldn't hurt to make one and see what it could do."

"Goodness, I've always wanted to recreate the robots of the past! Such vintage machinery and circuitry…" The CPU Candidate's eyes gave way to bright yellow sparkles, and ASJ became wary.

"Yeah…" He cleared his throat and continued, "Also, I can't code or write programs to save my life, so I'll need you to do that part."

"That's alright." Nepgear pulled down her welding mask and began to organize her tools. Although her face was covered, it was discernible that she was smiling quite brightly.

Once she had finished setting aside all of the tools necessary for the job, ASJ laid out an instruction booklet labeled 'APERTURE'. It appeared as though there was more text, but it had been faded, this being a further hint at the book's age. He opened the book to the first page, and something immediately piqued his curiosity.

"'The Enrichment Center would like to remind you that the Weighted Nep Cube will never threaten to steal your pudding, and in fact, cannot speak.' I'm…not sure what this means."

Nepgear pushed some of her hair out of her eyes and walked over to view the instructions herself. "That's weird. I've never seen a disclaimer like that before."

Despite the awkwardness of the booklet, the two began work, attaching parts and weaving wires through agonizingly small loopholes. The project was rather short, only having about 45 instructions, and so the two finished in just about an hour and a half. The end result, though, was not what they were expecting. The cube's body was white, with details of gray running through the faces. Directly centered on each of the faces was the Planeptune 'N' logo, symbolic of the name of the product.

ASJ made the first comment, "Well, it is a cube. I figured it'd be…larger, though."

Nepgear lifted up her welding mask and wiped some sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "Right…and what was the bit about threatening to steal your pudding, anyway? That was never made clear."

He grabbed the booklet again and thumbed through the pages until he reached the last one and began to read aloud, "Thank you for building our Weighted Nep Cube. If you wish to dispose of the cube, please use…an incinerator?!" ASJ shook his head and blinked his eyes to ensure he was reading properly. "That…seems unnecessary."

The two stared at the cube intently before Nepgear ultimately decided to store it in one of the room's cabinets. Before she could do this, though, she was tripped numerous times by the various hazard strewn throughout the room, and after she had put the cube away, she fell face-first to the ground after her foot got hooked underneath a cord. ASJ struggled to not make a snarky remark upon seeing this, and chose instead to help her up.

"Ow…thanks for the help. Looks like I might need to organize this place after all." Nepgear rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Not a problem at all." Once she had regained posture, ASJ looked around the room for a little bit before he finally spoke again, "I don't know what else to do. Perhaps we should just return to the room?"

She thought for a moment before accepting. "Alright. Thank you again for helping me."

He did not respond to this. When Nepgear opened the door, they found Neptune gaming as she always did, but Histoire was not in sight.

ASJ reached into the cooler on his back once more and pulled out a container of yogurt. "Where's Histoire? I thought she'd be doing work as usual."

Neptune shrugged, but did not remove her eyes from the screen. "I dunno. She was working, but just a few minutes ago she got a phone call. She left in a tizzy, but I don't know what it was all about."

Nepgear looked around the room in search of the Oracle, but could not find anything. "You said she left a few minutes ago, right? I doubt she'd leave for something unimportant."

"Well, it's not something we should concern ourselves with. Either way, Histoire will be back soon, and we can then have our explanation in person." ASJ had finished his container of yogurt and threw it towards the trashcan, just barely making it in.

Just as he said that, the Oracle entered the room. "Would any of you happen to know anything about the recent strange energy readings?"

ASJ put his hands into his pockets. He took the opportunity to joke, "Histoire, Planeptune's Shares rising is not that big of a deal."

"Even if they had risen within the past week…" She shot a menacing glare at Neptune, who faked injury from the look. "That would have no correlation to what I'm speaking of."

Nepgear, who was now at her sister's side and playing along with her charade, voiced her curiosity. "Is that what you were on the phone for just now? Those 'energy readings'?"

The Oracle nodded and floated over to the couch. "That's correct. I was talking with my counterpart in the Ultra Dimension. She said that they've been noticing strange energy readings from our dimension for a long time that they can't explain. It's nothing like Share energy or even magic."

ASJ put his hand to his chin and thought for a while. "Well, why don't we ask the other CPUs about it? They might know something we don't. Also, call the Gold Third. If this turns out to be a serious issue, we'll need all the help we can get."

Histoire affirmed this by writing the plan on a sticky note that was, rather adorably, about half her size. "Understood. We can conduct a video chat with everyone in…three hours."

Neptune reluctantly paused her game and prepared to shut down. "You might wanna slow down there, Histy. That same time increment already came up earlier in this chapter. The readers might get tired of it."

She did not take this well. "I could spend three days lecturing you on your poor habits instead. It is your choice."

"Three hours, was it? I'll be ready by then, Histy! Just you wait!" Rather hilariously, Neptune walked backwards out of the room, a hyperbolic smile on her face the whole while. Nepgear followed suit, doing her best to distract Neptune from Histoire's menacing warning.

ASJ rubbed his head. "My sympathy is with you, Histoire. Handling her must be quite the feat."

The Oracle agreed to this, recalling all of the times she had to resort to drastic measures to do so much as stir the lazy CPU. "It is. However, in the rare instances where she does work, she has pulled off nothing short of miracles."

"I suppose that the old adage is true; 'never judge a book by its cover'. Something tells me that there's more to Neptune than meets the eye, but that may just be my suppressed optimism speaking for me." ASJ slumped his shoulders and put his hands into his pockets as usual.

"I will say that I am grateful for their relationship. It's good that they don't have conflict, since that would likely make Shares decline even faster."

"I can say from experience that the love between siblings is the strongest in the world. If only it weren't so fragile…"

The Oracle was confused, and this issue was made no better by ASJ's sudden grim expression. "What…do you mean?"

He shook his head and looked back at her, as if he had been put in a trance. "Nothing, nothing. If it won't cause difficulty for you, might I stay here until the conference begins? I don't have a home, and staying in any of the other nations might cause conflict."

"Yes, of course. If you'd like, I can ask Neptune or Nepgear to show you where the snacks are, and…"

ASJ interrupted her. "That simply won't do." He pointed to the cooler on his back. "I have my own food. Besides, I couldn't possibly take food from the residence of the goddesses."

She was hesitant. "If you're sure…"

"Of course." He sat down on one of the couches and rested his face on his fist. He closed his eyes and thought to himself,

" _Things are starting to get interesting."_


	6. The Brewing Storm

"So you're the one who tried to kill Uni?!" The CPUs and Gold Third had all gathered in a conference room, and K-Sha was voicing her indignations at ASJ.

"Yes, I am. However, that seems to be of little importance now, since…" He stopped when he saw that K-Sha had a sub-machine gun pointed at his eye. "Hmph. Try shooting me. It's honestly quite entertaining to see people's reactions when they shoot me."

"W-what? What are you…"

ASJ cut her off. "I'm saying that you should shoot me. Do I need to threaten someone else to motivate you? Hmm…if you don't shoot me right now, I'll find Noire at night, take a knife, and carve your name into her neck. How's that?" Despite the nature of this threat, ASJ's face and voice seemed to betray no emotion whatsoever, remaining bland and monotone.

"Rrgh!" Out of anger, K-Sha fired three rounds towards him in a controlled burst style, but to her surprise, they all flew through him and impacted the wall behind him, leaving large indentations where they hit.

"With that out of the way, let's begin anew, shall we?" ASJ sat down, prompting everyone else to do the same. "It's unceremonious for me to begin this meeting, since tradition dictates that one of the goddesses does it. Which shall it be?"

Neptune leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms. "I guess I'll do it." She yawned and began, "Just a few hours ago, Mini Histy over in Ultra Dimension called our Histy. She said something about weird energy radios."

ASJ chuckled and corrected her. "Energy readings, Neptune. The two imply very different things."

"Yeah, energy readings! She said that these energy radii—er, readings, were unlike anything seen before. It wasn't Share energy, and it didn't seem to be magic."

Histoire had to be in the center of the table for everyone to hear her. "It isn't a major issue as of now, but this definitely raises questions. Have any of you seen anything like this?"

Everyone shook their head. B-Sha spoke up, rather worriedly. "No way! This…this can't be happening!"

C-Sha looked over inquisitively. "What's up? Do you know anything?"

The youthful Gold Third member put her hands to her head. "That book that I found in Planeptune…the one with the Golden Summit! There was…"

ASJ raised an eyebrow. "The book of…legends. They're legends."

Blanc reminded him of his stay in Lowee's library. "You got engrossed in the legend you told me. Don't discount this one."

He assented. "Fine. B-Sha, what do you know?"

She patted herself down. "Oh no, I forgot it! But…I remember reading one legend about the Deity of Knowledge, and how they wreaked havoc on the world! If they're back…"

"Then we might have a problem on our hands. But, we're making a huge leap to just assume it's true." Noire crossed her arms and looked at B-Sha intently.

ASJ put his hands into his pockets as usual. "Well, the 'myth' about the Golden Summit turned out to be true. It's not impossible for this to be true as well."

Histoire's eyes turned blue for about five seconds but then returned to normal. "Nothing in my database alludes to a Deity of Knowledge. However, if this legend does turn out to be true, we must approach them with caution."

Noire could not believe her ears. "Do you actually believe this legend? There's nothing credible in all of our nation's libraries to suggest this!"

"As I said earlier, there was also nothing credible to suggest the verisimilitude of the Golden Summits. For a long time, the existence of the Deity of Sin was also a myth, but you all know very well the truth behind that story. Myths begin as truth, but as they are passed from generation to generation, they lose their factual value."

She assented. "Fine. I'll accept the possibility that this Deity exists. But, if they do exist, why have we not heard of them until now? There's no reason for them to have remained in hiding for this long."

B-Sha looked up. "According to that book, the Third Deity was sealed away by ancient people, but she cursed the power so it would come back and give itself to someone who hated humanity just like her."

ASJ was beginning to piece together the given information. "So the third Deity cursed the power like that, and now it's resurfaced. That…actually makes some sense."

Vert shook her head. "It doesn't, really. If they hated humanity, why would they not act about it? There'd be no reason for them to try and bide their time if they hold legendary power."

Histoire thought intensely, her eyes turning blue once more before reverting. "I apologize, but I simply cannot find anything. We'll have to conduct a thorough search of all four nations in order to arrive at a deduction."

Neptune grimaced. "Somehow, I feel like a lot of work is waiting for us…"

"You'd be correct in assuming that, Neptune." ASJ was as nonchalant as ever. "If the legends I read were true, this Deity could do practically anything they wanted, and if this one hates humanity, we'd have a crisis on our hands."

The Planeptunian Oracle floated up and towards the door. "With that, this conference is adjourned. If any of you learnt anything, please inform everyone immediately. Thank you for coming."

Everyone filed out of the room except for ASJ, who remained seated. K-Sha shot him a glare before leaving, but he did not respond. As she was leaving, Histoire looked at him, unsure as to why he remained, but left the lights on for him nonetheless. After about a minute, he heaved a sigh and reached into the cooler on his back, pulling out a container of yogurt. For some reason, though, he felt hesitant, as if he was faced with a potential poison. He sat still, head heavy with doubts and concerns.

"Whatcha doing in here? Everyone already left, you know." Neptune, knowing that he had never left the room, had returned to try and find out what was happening.

"I…I don't know. I don't know. I don't…I don't know, Neptune." He repeated himself multiple times for effect, these words bringing him pain.

She tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean, 'you don't know'? What are you talking about?"

He leaned his face against his fist. "I just…never mind. I'd hate to repeat myself."

"Just because you say 'never mind' doesn't mean I'll just drop it that easy. You're a terrible actor, y'know?" Neptune was now standing beside him.

He stood up and walked out of the room without explanation. Neptune remained, thinking of why he would be acting this way. She decided that if he wanted to reveal his reasons, he would do so of his own volition, and left it at that. She exited the room and loaded a game to play, allowing all of her concerns to melt away. Meanwhile, ASJ stood by the balcony door, watching her play. He made mental notes to himself about her skill, realizing that she had plenty of practice from the days where she would do this exclusively.

"You are quite versed in RPG's, Neptune. I don't recall seeing someone quite as skilled as you." He walked into the living room and took a seat across the room from Neptune.

"Aww, really? I've just got a lot of practice is all." As she said this, she manipulated her character to perform several high-skill backflips across the screen.

"Say what you will." He put his hands into his pockets again. "I've never enjoyed this type of game much. I found that there were too many things to manage. When I did play games, I was best at the first-person shooter type. I set a record in one of the Lastation arcades once, but Uni easily trounced me." He smiled for a split second before his usual emotionless demeanor returned.

Neptune paused the game and looked at him in shock. "FPS? Really? I didn't see you as the kind of guy to like that stuff."

"In my youth, I was much different from who I am now. At one point, I was capable of reading five ancient languages. Heh." He chuckled and mused to himself silently.

Neptune took the opportunity to joke. "I bet you even showed emotions sometimes, too!"

ASJ looked at the screen. "I certainly did." An awkward silence passed before he resumed the conversation. "Histoire is always forcing you to work. She wishes for you to change, and become a different person than who you currently are. In short, she wishes for you to be more like your sister."

The CPU looked at him curiously. "Uh…yeah, you're right. Why do you mention it?"

"I'll try and keep this simple." He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "From what little I know about your sister, I don't think she's fit to lead a nation."

She was completely shocked. "What?! Normally I'm the one hearing that! What are you saying?"

He smirked. "You're proving my point, whether you realize it or not. Your bold, loud personality is fit for a CPU since it allows them to make firm decisions, even if they aren't the correct decisions to make. Nepgear, on the other hand, is hesitant and tentative, and requires the voices of many others to convince her that she's on the right path. She's remarkable when those doubts are cleared, but the process to get there can't be repeated on a daily basis for a leader."

"I dunno about that. She is under-confident a lot, but that's alright. Like you said, she's really cool when she's sure in herself."

"I understand, and it's only natural that you'd want to support your younger sister. However, it doesn't seem appropriate in the slightest for the leader of an entire nation to be so unsure in herself."

Neptune stretched her arms before victoriously raising her fist into the air. "Well then, as her older sister, it's my job to help her overcome that fear!"

"I suppose it is." He reached into the cooler on his back, but instead of grabbing a container of yogurt, he grabbed a photo album from one of the side pockets. "I'm glad to see that your relationship is this healthy. My brother was…well, he was strange."

The CPU lowered her arms slowly and looked curiously at him. "Whaddya mean, 'strange'? Like, what were his flaws?"

ASJ put his hand to his chin and thought. "Well, he poured his milk before his cereal…"

Before he could continue, Neptune began violently coughing. After she recovered, she looked up and said, "What kind of sick monster does that?!"

"Well, he did." He was laughing so hard that he could barely speak. When he had collected enough breath, he continued, "He also had the most obvious crush on Noire that he always refused to admit."

Neptune was laughing wildly. "Noire always seems to attract the weirdest fans…"

"Luckily, it wasn't one of…those…fans. He appreciated her personality, and that's a step above most." He opened his album and began to flip the pages, smiling warmly at each one he passed. "But, those flaws are what made him whole, strangely enough. It's the same way with you and Nepgear, I think. You both have flaws, but those imperfections are what make you real, and not some deluded vision of perfection."

Throughout all of this, the CPU had noticed something interesting. "You're saying you 'had' a brother. Did he…?"

ASJ turned away, unable to muster words. This immediately signaled to Neptune that she was right—ASJ's brother was dead. A tense silence filled the room, but eventually, ASJ turned back around and put his hands into his pockets.

"Apologies for that. I…lost composure, and it made me look somewhat immature. I assure you, it won't happen again."

Neptune grabbed the controller again. "It wasn't a problem, really." She resumed playing, and ASJ looked to his right, where he saw Histoire handling some paperwork. He stood up and took place next to her.

"Histoire. First, I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience that my stay has caused. I know that you're not used to handling another person in your Basilicom who isn't a friend of Neptune."

The Oracle shook her head in refusal. "No, it hasn't caused any problems. In fact, I think you're beginning to grow on Neptune and Nepgear as friends."

"Is that so? Well, I suppose that's only natural when you stay in somebody's house, especially someone as friendly as the two of them." He pulled his right hand out of his pocket and rubbed the back of his head. "Now, I'd also like to ask you something."

She set down a document and faced him. "What would you like to know?"

"I know you were created by the very first Planeptune CPU. How long ago was that?"

She looked confused. "I…don't know. I could search my data, but it might take up to three hours. Why?"

"You couldn't find anything about the Deity of Knowledge, so that suggests that the legend is either completely false or completely true. It'd be completely false in the obvious scenario where the Deity simply does not exist. However, it could be completely true, since the legend tells of an extremely ancient period of time—an era long before the first goddess."

"How…do you know all of this?"

He closed his eyes and smirked. "I'm rather well read. This myth has fascinated me since my youth." He walked back over to where Neptune was and sat down again to watch her play. Histoire looked at him suspiciously, and was unsure of what to think. All she knew was that danger was looming, and they might not be prepared.


	7. The Library Opened

The morning sun streaked across Planeptune, calling birds into flight and beckoning citizens to venture outside, be it for play, work, or otherwise. The sunrise was a sight generally considered remarkable among all of Gamindustri, and couples would occasionally travel to this nation just to observe it, especially from heights.

The beautiful sunrise juxtaposed heavily with the chaos currently ensuing in the Basilicom. Histoire floated worriedly over to the door to Neptune's room, knocking upon it with all the force she could muster.

"Neptune! Neptune, we need you awake!" The Oracle's voice was full of concern and worry.

From within, Neptune yawned loudly and footsteps could be heard. Histoire let out a sigh of relief, quietly muttering to herself, "You're safe…"

The CPU opened the door, small bags under her eyes. "What's up…Histy…" Her sleepiness was audible.

"Please, follow me. This is urgent!" Histoire hurriedly floated away, but Neptune was easily able to keep up due to the difference in stride length. The two made their way out to the central room, where they found something completely unexpected.

"Nepgear?!" Neptune ran over to the wall, where Nepgear's unconscious body had been leaned. The older sister frantically tried to shake the Candidate awake, but to no avail.

"I found her like this in the morning. Do you know what could have happened?"

The CPU thought worriedly. "No, I can't think of anything. What about you?"

The Oracle shook her head. ASJ entered the room from the balcony, where had slept. For some reason, he had decided that it would be disrespectful to take a room despite Histoire's offer. "Good mor—oh dear." He ran over to the CPU Candidate. "What happened here?"

Histoire looked around the room. "We don't know. I found her like this in the morning."

Neptune put her hand to her sister's stomach and kept it there for a few moments. She then retracted her hand and faced Histoire, fear in her eyes. "I can barely feel any Shares from her."

ASJ stood up and put his hand to his chin. "Well, it's impossible for a CPU to 'lose' Shares. Due to the nature of the substance, it's impossible for them to simply disappear." He saw that Neptune looked confused, and clarified, "This means that her Shares were either stolen or suppressed. I can't locate any Anti-Shares in the area, so that means the former is more likely."

The goddess rose to her feet, indignant. "Well, who would steal Shares from us, let alone Nepgear?!"

"The only likely answer is another nation, but even that goes against probability, since the eight of you are on friendly terms." He thought for a moment. "Why not send a message to Uzume? Perhaps she may know something that we do not."

Histoire firmly nodded and floated up a few feet. Her eyes turned blue, and ringing could be heard in the background. After a few seconds, Uzume picked up. "Histy, what's up? You don't usually call."

"Can you return to the Planeptune Basilicom? We have urgent business." She did her best to remain calm despite the frightful situation.

"Uh…yeah, got it. Big Nepsy!" The call was ended, and the Oracle let out another sigh of relief. After a few seconds, a portal opened a few feet above the floor in the Basilicom, depositing the taller Neptune and Uzume in a rough fashion.

ASJ walked over and helped them up. "I'm assuming this is the work of 'Crostie' again?"

The taller Neptune indignantly nodded. "Yep. She's always causing trouble for us."

Croire angrily called out from within the book, "I keep telling you, I need to…"

She was silenced when ASJ grabbed the book, opened it to the page where Croire was kept, and created a black rod mere inches away from her. "Another word and you're not going to live to see the sun again. We need your help, and you're going to give it to us. Got it?" Despite the threat, ASJ's voice remained bland.

"Urk! Not the wings! Fine, you've got my help." Croire reluctantly agreed, upon which ASJ retracted the rod and handed the book back to the taller Neptune. She took it, silently applauding him for keeping Croire in check.

"So Histy, what's the prob…lem…" Uzume stopped as she saw the problem. "Gearsy!" She also attempted to shake her awake, but to no avail.

ASJ walked over. "I've read books about the goddesses. Apparently, when their Shares are this low, they are on the brink of death. They either require an emergency donation of Shares or to be stripped of their CPU powers."

Neptune looked at him intently. "Well, I'm obviously going to give her some of my Shares! What do I have to do?"

"You're asking a mortal about what a goddess does. In reality, I haven't the faintest clue what you're supposed to do." He kept his hands in his pockets and nonchalantly shrugged. "It's quite possible that she's already dead."

Uzume glared at him. "How can you be so…okay with this?! You don't seem to care at all!"

He looked at her, his face as blank as usual. "I do care, but we must acknowledge every possibility if we are to have a chance at success. For now, we should focus on trying to help Nepgear, and from there we can address the issue of stolen Shares."

Everyone agreed and turned to face the unconscious CPU. ASJ knelt down and put his index and middle fingers on the right side of her neck and then on her wrist. "She's got a pulse, although faint. If we work quickly, her odds of survival are likely rather high."

Neptune knelt down by her sister's side. Without thinking, she immediately grabbed her hand and noticed that it was still warm, giving her just a little bit more hope. She held it tightly, trying to find some way to transfer Shares.

"Neptune! I've got it!" From behind them, Histoire triumphantly exclaimed, her eyes blue.

"What do I need to do, Histy?"

She floated over to be level with Nepgear's head. "It says here that a Share Crystal made from the Shares of a CPU can restore a CPU Candidate."

ASJ squatted down. "Are we going to have enough time to do that? After all, synthesizing a Share crystal is quite a time-consuming procedure."

Neptune looked at him with fierce determination. "We'll find a way!"

He looked at her curiously before standing up. "Either way, I don't think that you have a sufficient amount of Shares for this task. Attempting to create a Share Crystal with an infinitesimal amount of Shares is a waste of effort." He put his hands in his pockets. "Therefore, I will assist by going to Lastation and asking Noire to borrow some of her Shares. Since she has always had the highest amount, I'm sure she'd be more than willing to assist."

Histoire looked up at him. "Please, hurry. We might not have much time left."

"No need to worry." The space around him warped, and he was no longer there.

In Noire's office, things had been going rather peacefully. Work was being done in a timely manner and documents were being neatly filed. That was progressing until ASJ appeared on top of Noire's desk, causing her to drop an important document in fear, lodging it underneath one of the legs of the table.

"Wh-what are you doing here?! And why are you on my desk?!"

He smirked and stepped off. "I came because I, or, more specifically, Neptune, requires your assistance."

Her expression immediately went from shocked to annoyed. "Great, Neptune? She'll probably just ask to take my pudding or 'borrow' my game and never return it."

"Sounds to me like you a have a lovely relationship. However, that is not why we're here." He cleared his throat and straightened his back. "Simply put, Planeptune requires your Shares."

There was silence for a moment before Noire fully processed this statement. "Wh-what the hell?! That lazy goddess is seriously trying to…"

"That's enough." His voice was unusually firm as he said this, prompting Noire to quiet and listen. "We need your Shares to create a Share Crystal, and we're running out of time to do so. Are you going to accept, or will you decline?"

"Well, what do you need a Share Crystal for? I'll do it if it's for something important."

"Oh, is that so? Well then, you'll be pleased to know that Nepgear is currently on the brink of dying and your Share Crystal might just breathe life into her once again. Doesn't it feel so good to be a heroine?" ASJ placed especial sarcasm and scorn on the last sentence.

She was stunned. "Wh-what?! What happened to Nepgear?"

ASJ's patience was running thin. "By the goddesses, does it matter what happened?! Fine. If you wish to know so ardently, Nepgear had her Shares stolen, so we need more. Is that sufficient?!"

Noire had never seen this level of rage from ASJ, not even when she knew him before. "F-fine. If you insist." She reached out her hands and began condensing her Shares. Creating a Share Crystal was an elusive process, and the steps to do so were known only to the CPUs and Oracles. As such, only they had ever witnessed the creation of a Share Crystal, and it was completely unorthodox for a mortal such as ASJ to see one.

"Here. It's done." She handed the crystal to ASJ, who took it and placed it in his pocket.

"Thank you, Noire. I apologize for raising my voice; I simply want this ordeal to be over so we can get our answers." He turned to leave.

"I'll deal with that later. Just make sure you figure out what's going on."

"I can do that." The space around ASJ warped again, and he was back in Planeptune.

At this point, everyone in the room was beginning to panic. Nepgear had started to grow cold, and without sight of ASJ, nobody knew how to handle the problem. When he returned and Histoire saw him, she floated over immediately.

"Do you have it? The Crystal?" She was more worried than she had ever been in a very long time.

He nodded and drew the crystal from his pocket. "Yes. Please, take it and make sure she survives."

Histoire took the crystal and returned to Nepgear, placing it upon her chest. Her eyes turned blue once more as she placed her hands together. After a few seconds, she began to recite an incantation.

"By the love of the people…" The Share Crystal began to glow a bright blue.

"By the love of your family…" Without thinking, Neptune placed her hand upon the crystal, causing it to glow even brighter.

"By the love of those before you…" Uzume did the same as Neptune did.

"And by the love of those around you…" Everyone except for ASJ placed their hands upon the crystal.

"We will you back, CPU Candidate."

The crystal shattered in a spectacular fashion, sending shards across the room. For a moment, all hope was lost as nothing happened and Nepgear remained motionless. After a few seconds, though, the CPU Candidate's eye's fluttered open as life flowed back into her.

"Nepgear!" Neptune embraced her sister tightly. "You had me so worried!"

"Goodness…I'm sorry, Neptune. I didn't mean…to worry you."

Uzume shook her head. "Just tell us next time you drift off!"

ASJ walked over. "I recognize that you would like to have your time to celebrate Nepgear's life, but there is a more important issue we should worry about." He looked at a Nepgear curiously. "Who or what was responsible for this?"

She thought back as far as she could. "All I recall was that I got up for water in the night. I saw somebody wearing a mask of some sort—it was half black and half white. As soon as I saw them, I tried to turn back, but I got hit in the stomach really hard. The next thing I knew, their hand was on my forehead, and my Shares were being stolen. It felt so painful…" At those words, Neptune hugged her just a little tighter, grateful that her sister was alive.

However, ASJ was occupied with something else. "Then, it appears we have a problem. If their appearance was as you say, they're distinctively not from another nation. With that possibility being struck, the only option we are left with…is the Deity of Knowledge."

From within the Nep-Note, Croire whistled in surprise. "Holy shit. I never thought that guy actually existed. It always seemed a little bit too far-fetched to me."

The taller Neptune drew the book from her side. "Do you know something, Crostie?"

"Not a whole lot. All I know is that if the Deity exists, then their dimension of Biblio also exists. I can try taking us there, but it'll be super exhausting."

Uzume sneered at the book. "You're being awfully cooperative. How do we know we can trust you?"

"If this Deity actually exists, you have no idea how interesting that history will be! I'd never pass this up for the world."

ASJ scoffed angrily. "As usual, your only concern is the recording of history. Well, it matters not. Our priority should be going to this dimension of Biblio and sorting out the issue."

From the side, Histoire firmly agreed. "Indeed. We should also see if the other CPUs can come and lend their assistance. If the Deity has the ability to siphon Shares, sending this small of a party could be risky."

Croire stopped the train of thought. "Hold on, hold on. Taking you brats would be enough of a challenge, but taking everyone? That's out of the question."

"I may have something to assist us." Everyone looked to ASJ, who had grabbed another container of yogurt from his cooler. "In olden days, mortals had an extreme fondness of the Deity of Knowledge's abilities. The second Deity shared some of her secrets, and ever since, the people who learned them have closely guarded them. Through completely legal and by no means harmful methods, I learned of a spell that might open a portal to Biblio, but there is one caveat."

Histoire looked at everyone in the room before beginning, "It won't be a problem as long as you can warp the CPUs."

He nodded. "Understood. However, due to the strain the spell places on my body, I won't be able to come with you. I doubt I would contribute much to the team even if I did travel with you, though."

The Oracle's eyes flashed blue for a moment and then returned to normal. "I've sent a message to the other goddesses informing them of the situation. They should be here relatively soon."

ASJ took a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders. "It appears as though I'll be able to contribute soon. Despite all of my time as the focus, I have done remarkably little in this story." He thought for a moment before a realization dawned on him. "But, even after I cast the spell, I'll be left behind again…truly, this is a disastrous scenario."

Neptune patted his shoulder and attempted to assuage his sorrow. "Don't worry, Azzy! If we find the Deity, we'll fight 'em in your name!"

"Truly? Well, I shall wait for either your return or his appearance in our dimension." He looked at her intently. "Please, make sure the latter does not happen. It would be rather disappointing if our dimension was ravaged before the release of Half Nep 3."

Nepgear smiled worriedly. "At this point, I don't think that game will ever come out…"

Histoire directed the group's attention to the balcony. As they looked outside, they saw the other CPUs descending and heading towards the door. Neptune ran towards Noire in an attempt to annoy her, but was pushed aside with words about the gravitas of the situation. Everyone approached Histoire before ASJ caught their attention by clapping his hands together.

Noire smirked in pleasant surprise. "So, you'll be the one taking us? I didn't think you wielded such power."

ASJ was not grateful for the lack of confidence in him. "Thank you for the vote of extreme confidence." He focused on his hands, where green energy was building up. "Now, I'll proceed to recite the incantation and open the portal. Brace yourselves, everyone."

They all did so and watched as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. He separated his hands by about an inch, revealing a small green orb.

"Land of knowledge, realm of wisdom. Another mortal seeks your knowledge." Lighting began to crackle between his palms. "Through the love of the Deity and the hands of the wise, reveal your secrets to those who wish to learn." The orb widened and forced him to open his palms more, eliciting a grunt of effort from him. "With this key, the gate to the Library is open!"

The green orb floated out of his hands and floated about five feet above the ground. It stayed in place and began to swirl around, sending jolts of green lightning throughout the room. ASJ dropped to his knees and coughed heavily, causing Uni to run over and help him to his feet.

"Don't worry…about me. You need…to focus on what's beyond that portal." He patted himself down and put his hands back into his pockets.

After a moment's hesitation, everyone agreed and walked in. From within the Nep-Note, Croire's voice chimed out,

"The Deity of Knowledge, huh? This is gonna be fun."


	8. A Smile Without Suffering

The group emerged from the portal into a strange place reminiscent of a library. All around, as far as the eye could see, bookshelves stretched and wound around each other, forming a sort of maze. These bookshelves rose past vision and continued in the same manner, never seeming to have an end. On them, books of all kinds found their home, ranging from children's picture books to novels that would crush the mind of even the most educated of readers. Despite the sheer size and number of the shelves, the books were neatly kept, and although there did not appear to be an organization system, the lack of dilapidation implied the presence of a librarian somewhere in the area.

Despite having only just arrived, Blanc gave an uneasy shudder. The room had a brisk coolness that was warmer than Lowee, but still inspired a strange sense of fear in the entire group. Deciding to move forward, everyone did their best to stick together, but found that for every step they took, they would travel several feet, and would be separated from the person next to them. Noticing a strange fluctuation in the amount of light in the room as she walked, Blanc looked around the room for a light source, but her eyes were eventually drawn downward.

The floor bore the likeness of the night sky, with stars twinkling and glowing just as they would in the heavens. As they walked, the sky shifted in response, and they saw more, different gems of light. In between the bright, gleaming stars lay the black, cold abyss of space, shrouding the light of the gleaming spots and making the room appear even more mystical.

Pages flew randomly around the room, some flying mere inches away from the groups' heads, and others staying close to the bookshelves and disappearing from sight quickly. Sometimes, these pages would coagulate into a book and shelve themselves upon one of the many bookcases, and other times books that were already on shelves would burst into pages and fly around the room, continuing the cycle.

Rom and Ram walked over to a bookshelf together, curious as to what exactly was on the shelves. The younger twin grabbed a book and pulled it out, reading the title aloud slowly. "'Modern and Ancient Applications of Medicine.' Rom, do you know what this means?"

The older twin shook her head. "No. Why don't we…read it and find out?"

The two were about to do so before Blanc hurried over and took the book from them. "Don't read anything you see here. I have a bad feeling about this place."

Just from touching the book, Blanc felt an indescribable urge to open it and unravel its contents. Within the recesses of her mind, she heard quiet whispers that grew louder as her hands neared the edges of the book's cover, tempting her to open it. It was everything she had to resist the temptation, and even then, she was losing the battle. The voices would be clear if she read. If she read this book, she could hear them, and gain their knowledge, and…

Blanc shook her head furiously and even went so far as to slap herself on the cheek to remove the urge. Thinking quickly, she slammed the book back onto the shelf. "You two, don't even touch these books. They're not safe."

Ram was not pleased with this. "Aww, but why? You're always telling us to read more, Blanc."

The CPU softened her gaze and knelt down beside her sister. "When I held that book just now, I felt…strange. I heard…voices, and it felt like reading that book would make it clear. We don't know what will happen if we read these, so stay safe, okay?"

The twins hesitantly agreed and proceeded to follow their older sister. Beside them, Neptune and Nepgear stuck close to each other as well, constantly looking over to ensure that they were still with the group. After a few moments of walking, Neptune looked behind her, and when she did so, her face changed into a worried expression.

"Uh, guys…Noire and Uni aren't with us anymore…"

Everyone turned around and saw that she was right. Somewhere along the path, the dimension had shifted and separated the Lastation CPUs from the rest of the group.

Neptune realized something greater, and her eyes narrowed again. "Uzume, big me, and Vert are gone too! What in the world is going on?!"

Blanc attempted to defuse the situation. "It's best if we don't look for them right now. With the way this dimension bends, that might actually make more distance between us."

"But…"

Nepgear stopped her sister before she could protest further. "Blanc's right, Neptune. It'll be better if we just keep going for now."

Neptune quietly whined and agreed to press onwards, hoping deep within herself that, wherever she was, Noire was okay. Despite all of the times she teased her, Neptune did really care about Noire, and if she died before she got to apologize for all of the times she stole her pudding, or say all of the things she never got to say, she wouldn't know what to do.

As she pulled herself out of these thoughts, she looked around and noticed that she had been separated from her group. She began to panic and tried to walk back in the direction she had come from, but tripped over something on the ground and fell face-first. Once she collected herself, the CPU looked at what had tripped her—a lone book, laying on the ground in front of her. Neptune could not help but realize that this book wasn't there when she first came through the area, meaning it had either just appeared from pages flying around the air, or it had been placed there by some unknown entity.

Before she could fully process these thoughts, though, Neptune almost felt as though she was being magnetically pulled towards the book. Within her mind, she heard whispers like Blanc did, although these were not just whispers—they were mumblings, and Neptune could almost hear them. If she grabbed the book, she would understand. If she read, she would know. Before she realized it, she was just an inch away from the book, stretching down to pick it up.

"What's this book? Why do I feel…" Neptune complained to herself aloud before she could not stop herself any longer. The voices were too quiet, and she couldn't bear it. Her body acted on its own, grabbing the book and opening it, exposing its contents to her eager eyes.

Immediately as she did so, a feeling of relief washed over her, and she felt as if all of her problems were being solved. She fell to the ground, and even though the floor was dense and rough, she felt as if she were collapsing onto a soft mattress after a long day of work. The voices from within her mind faded, and she now only heard an oddly comforting silence.

Neptune could no longer tell if she was dreaming or not. When she opened her eyes and looked around, she was still in Biblio, but something about the space she was in felt odd. For one, the room was enclosed—it was in the shape of a circle with bookcases composing the walls, and no door to exit from. Upon seeing this, she began to panic, recalling that she had been separated from the group before reading the book. She stood up and tried to move the bookcases, but they were much too heavy. As she frantically looked around the room, she heard a voice call out to her,

"Unless you wish to tear down your conscience from the inside out, I wouldn't recommend doing that."

Neptune shot her gaze in the direction of the voice. She saw a cloud of pages forming a few feet from her in the shape of a person. "Who are you?" Despite the process she had just been through, or perhaps because of it, Neptune felt energized, as if she had just woken up from a nap.

The pages completed their formation, and a person stood where they once were. "I am the Deity of Knowledge, keeper of the books of Biblio. You are the goddess Neptune, patron CPU of the nation of Planeptune. I've read quite a bit about you."

Sure to Nepgear's description, the Deity of Knowledge wore a mask that was circular, half of it being black, and half of it being white, being almost identical to the commonly used symbol for duality. Two dots were carved out at the top to allow for vision, and where the colored halves ended, the mask's material jutted out into a spike-like protrusion. On their body, the Deity wore black robes that covered their entire body without exposing any skin whatsoever, and a kilt-like extension of fabric stretched down to just a few inches above the floor.

All along their robes were golden details that bent and wound around the material. The design was inconsistent and seemed to move every few seconds, as if it was a living creature. Centered on the Deity's chest was a large circle with flourishes of detail radiating from it, and unlike the rest of the design, this circle never moved and remained constant.

The CPU looked at him angrily. "So you're the one who hit Nepgear and stole her Shares, huh?! Something tells me you're not the type of villain to fight directly, since you used that cheap tactic!"

The Deity merely chuckled at Neptune's indignation and began to pace around the room. "I am the one who took your sister's Shares. I admit to my guilt in that. However, that is hardly a topic for discussion. Let's talk about you, shall we?"

Neptune was shocked. "Me? Why?"

"You're quite admirable. No matter what adversity you face, you charge forward with a smile. Your friends and peers may chastise you for doing so, but deep down, they appreciate that beaming smile that lifts up the mood of the group." He turned towards her, and his mask bent and warped around the bottom to show a smile. "Isn't that right?"

"Y-yeah, I guess. Why do you ask?"

His mask warped back to normal. "Please, humor me by allowing me to speak at length." He cleared his throat, preparing to ramble for a long time. "A smile without suffering behind it simply cannot exist. Such a pure thing is made impossible by the forces in the world. Yours is no different. You pretend to be unaffected by your peers' antics, but in truth, it scars your very core. It hurts when they turn you away without even acknowledging your presence. It haunts you that they turn you away purely because of who you are. Your smile wavers when they yell, mock, and berate your personality that brings people together. But, nothing hurts more…" He looked at her deeply. "Than being pushed away by the one you love."

She tilted her head in confusion. "'The one I love'? Who are you talking about? And, what do you even want from me?!

He chuckled and crossed his arms. "It's obvious, isn't it? I'm speaking of Noire, patron CPU of the prosperous nation of Lastation, the Land of Black Regality. The signs are all there. You smile widest and laugh hardest when you're with her. When you were cast away to the Ultra Dimension, you wished for only two things—the safety of your sister, and to return home to see Noire. It hurts when she calls you a friend, not because you don't want the title, but because you wish from the bottom of your heart to be…something more."

Neptune put her hand to her chin and thought sincerely. Eventually, when she had had enough, she pointed her finger at him and yelled, "Alright, that's enough! I bet you're just one of those villains like Kurome who tries to pit me against my friends! Well, sorry to say, buck-o, but it ain't gonna work this time!"

The bottom of the Deity's mask warped again, this time changing to a frown. "You misunderstand. I only want to offer you something. I know that your heart is on the verge of shattering from the way your 'friends' are. You may try and hide this all you like, but the truth is not changed. I saw you question yourself, wondering who you are and what you've done. I saw you pull your knees to your chest and wallow in your suffering. I saw you try and change who you are to satisfy your friends."

Neptune tried to counter this, but could not find it in herself to do so. She lowered her hand and looked down, thinking about what the Deity had said. Her usual smile was replaced with a grim, blank expression, and eventually, a lone tear exited her eye, wetting her cheek and falling to the floor.

She was stirred from her thoughts, however, when the Deity put his hand on her shoulder. "Things don't have to be this way. If you let me, I can help you. I can give you the strength you need to change all that is wrong in your world."

"But…how will Nep Jr and the others react? Won't they…"

The Deity interrupted her. "You're still thinking about them? The only one you need is your sister, the one who never brought you any pain. All of the others have done nothing but hurt you, again and again. Especially Noire." He placed especial venom on the goddess' name, and his mask warped to a grimace. "She never took note of your love, even when you made it so obvious for her. She turned her back to you when you needed it most, and pushed you away every time you tried to confess your feelings. Someone as…strong and magnificent as yourself should not have to associate with such a…malefactor."

She looked at him pensively, unsure of what to do. He took a step back and said, "I understand if you need time to think. Take this." He opened his palm, and pages flew from the books on the walls and floated above his hand. Black energy protruded from his hand and formed the binding and cover of a book, and the pages arranged themselves, completing the book. "If you wish to accept my offer, read this book."

Neptune took it, and as she did so, it collapsed into a small black gem that would easily fit into her pocket, where she placed it carefully. The space around her began to warp, and the Deity began to walk away. He burst into pages and flew around her, and her vision was filled with blackness.

"Neptune! Neptune, please wake up!" The goddess awoke to her sister's desperate cries. She opened her eyes and reached out for her.

"How long...was I asleep for, Nep Jr?" She shuffled and sat cross-legged, looking directly at her sister.

"I have no idea. I haven't known what time it is ever since we got here." After she said this, Nepgear pulled her older sister into a tight hug. "Please, don't worry me like that."

She reciprocated the embrace and patted her younger sister on the back to calm her down. "I promise I won't, Nep Jr. I'll stay with you. Promise."

Blanc walked over with her twin sisters. "I hate to break the moment, but we should get going. We still have to find Noire and the others."

For a split second, Neptune glared at her, but she immediately corrected this by smiling widely. "Right. Let's go on a tsundere hunt!"


	9. The Key to Ending Suffering

It had been about an hour since Uzume had made contact with another human being. As far as she could see, she only saw the towering bookcases and flying pages around her. She called out the names of her party members, but was met with the eerie silence of the Library. After what felt like an endless walk, Uzume slumped down and took a brief rest. She tried to recall the last time she saw Neptune and the others, and the only memory she could recall was when they had just arrived in Biblio and were walking together. Before she could react, the dimension bent and suddenly, she was by herself, with no sign of her group anywhere near her.

"I've never seen anything like that before…WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Uzume yelled out in frustration, unsure of where to go. A page flew over her eyes, causing her to take a step backwards, and as she removed it, she was no longer where she had been.

In front of her was a mesmerizing collage of stars, not unlike those found on the floor beneath her. The sky seemed to rotate as it would in any other dimension, bringing a new set of stars into view. Uzume looked out into the space and attempted to take a step forward, but found herself hitting an invisible barrier. As she looked at the obstruction, she noticed that the ground cut off, and that the bookcases leading to this space were cut short by the starry sky.

"Wow…it's so pretty…Uzume could stare at this for ages…" The CPU could not help but revert to her 'daydream' self in the presence of such a mystical sky. As she looked closer, though, a disturbing sight shook her from this trance.

"Is that…the Zero Dimension?!" Sure enough, in the distance of the sky, the Zero Dimension was in view, surrounded by stars. The shattered buildings and cracked sky were sure signs that she was looking at her home. As she looked around, she noticed the Hyper Dimension as well, nesting between clusters of bright stars and galaxies.

Behind her, pages began to ruffle and form a humanlike cloud. Hearing this, Uzume quickly turned around and saw the Deity emerge from the form of pages. She backed up against the barrier once more and glared at him intensely.

"Who the hell are you?"

His mask warped into a frown. "Such a rude greeting. No matter, I shall tell you. I am the Deity of Knowledge, keeper of this dimension. However, I believe you wish for a name. In that case," he paused for a moment as he thought of an identity for himself. "Call me Magist." His mask changed to normal and he folded his arms, not out of rude intent, but out of comfort. "I believe you wished to know what this place is."

Uzume looked at him intently. "Not only this place, but this entire dimension. Where exactly are we?"

"I'll start at the beginning. You are in the dimension of Biblio, home of the Deity of Knowledge and library of the Deity's knowings. Due to its nature, this library knows everything about everything." He walked over to the starry sky and pressed his hand against the invisible barrier. "What you see before you is the end of the library. In other words, this is the limit to what mortals can know."

"The limit…to what we know? What do you mean by that?"

"It's exactly as it sounds. There are only so many facts in this universe. As such, there is a tangible limit to the amount of knowledge any one person may hold. As the Deity of Knowledge, I embody that limit. In simpler terms, I am the personification of knowledge itself."

"Then why could I see all the other dimensions out there?" Uzume had lost her previous fear in light of a strange curiosity.

"That is because Biblio was the very first dimension to have ever existed. All other dimensions were born from here, and so they can be seen."

"And…"

Magist cut her off. "Please wait. It's rude to dominate the conversation solely for yourself. I would like to propose a question to you."

Uzume grew slightly indignant, but suppressed this when she spoke, "And what's that?"

He took a deep breath. "Why do you dream?"

She looked at him curiously. "Why do I dream? What kind of question is that?"

"When you were in the Zero Dimension and everything around you was bleak, why did you dream? Why didn't you succumb to your circumstances and give up? What is this force that strives you to fight the odds?"

She glared at him. "Well, I couldn't have just given up! There were people counting on me!"

Magist chuckled and gestured towards the Zero Dimension in the sky. "However, the odds were completely against you. Even if people were relying on them, most would have given up in that situation. What I want to know is…why do you dream of the impossible?"

"My dreams were what kept me going, even if there was no reason to dream. Those goals drove me to get stronger and help those in need!" She angrily swung her hand from right to left, pouring her soul into her words.

Meanwhile, Magist betrayed no emotion whatsoever. "Well, your courage to fight was laudable. However, dreams are nothing more than an escape from reality." He clenched his fist and eyed Uzume with a fiery rage visible through his mask. "Your dreams were nothing more than a vision of a life you could never lead. What is the point of wishing for something you can never have?"

The CPU recoiled for an instant, but then pushed back with her own passion. "My dreams gave me the strength to push on! Just because you've never had a dream…" She closed her eyes and let out a yell. "DOESN'T MEAN IT MAKES ME WEAK!!"

Uzume swung a punch for Magist, hitting him directly in the center of his mask. He took a few staggered steps backward, clutching where he was struck and averting his gaze downward. From what little she could see, Uzume noticed that Magist's mask warped to an imposing grimace. There was a tense silence before he spoke again.

"You're…you're wrong. I had a dream once." A single tear fell from the eyehole on Magist's mask, wetting the floor and splattering next to Uzume. "I wanted that dream to come true more than anything else."

The girl looked at him in shock as another tear fell to the ground. "You…you did? What was that dream?"

He gave a dry and hollow chuckle. "I had a dream…where I loved someone with all my heart. We laughed and cried together, and shared our joys and pains. We grew old and loved with all our heart until we died happy." He tightened his grip around his mask. "But then…then I woke up. I woke up and saw the wretched world around me, and all its impurities. Which is why…"

Uzume waved her hands and stopped him. "Hold on. 'Wretched world'? Just what are you talking about?"

"Remain patient, and all shall become clear. I will reveal my motivations to your entire group, so I won't have to waste my words." He turned back to face the wall of stars behind him and reached his hand out, closing his fist when he saw the Hyper Dimension. "In the coming days, the fate of your world will be decided. If you wish to have any chance of saving it, you must pour your heart into your efforts."

She realized the implications of this, but before she could protest, a page flew over her face again and she felt herself fall onto the ground from a sizable height. The page flew from her face, and as she sat up, she saw Neptune, Nepgear, Blanc, Rom and Ram in the distance, walking towards her. She pulled herself to her feet and ran towards them.

"Nepsy! Everyone! Are you alright?"

Neptune ran over and tackled her friend into a hug. "Uzume! I could ask the same question!"

The two stood up again and faced the rest of the group. Blanc quickly broke the mood of the reunion. "If everyone's okay, we have to try and find the rest of the group. We've been separated for hours now and we have to act quickly if we want to have any hope of finding them."

The lilac-haired CPU shot Blanc another glare before correcting it with her usual smile. "Right! Let's…"

She was cut off when pages flew in front of them, forming a humanoid cloud. "There will be no need for that."

Before the six of them could react, the dimension waved about wildly, almost throwing them off their feet. After a moment of this chaotic movement, the rest of the group crashed into the ground beside them.

Within Neptune's pocket, the black gem she had been hiding began giving off green waves of energy whose light broke through her jacket. Fearing the group's reaction, she tried to block this glow with her hand, but found that this did nothing to stop the radiance.

Nepgear walked over and looked at her sister's pocket. "Neptune…what is that? Have you had that this whole time?"

The goddess in question looked to Magist for assistance, but was met with only his cold stare. Giving a sheepish chuckle, she tried to come up with a lie. "I just found this on one of the shelves. It looked really pretty, so I decided to keep it. Didn't think it'd make a personal light show, though."

Magist crosses his arms and chuckled at the girl's ruse. "There is nothing on my shelves besides books and pages, Neptune." He looked at everyone and clarified, "The object in Neptune's pocket is a miniaturized Biblic Tome. I'll let her explain it later. Now, though, I wish to reward your tenacity with a…presentation, of sorts."

Before anyone could say anything, Magist swiped his hand through the air from left to right, bending the dimension and transporting them from the room they were in to a circular room not unlike the one Neptune found herself in previously. The most major difference was in the center, where a blue double-helix reminiscent of DNA was being suspended off the ground by copious amounts of magic noticeable from several feet away.

From within the Nep-Note, Croire spoke up, her voice full of fear. "Oh shit…"

Unused to the prospect of Croire being afraid, the taller Neptune looked down at the book and voiced her curiosity. "What's up, Crostie? You're not normally so afraid."

"If I'm right, and I usually am, then we're looking at a dimensional core." Despite her limited range of movement, Croire managed to wriggle nervously as she said this. "That's REALLY bad. Almost worse than what Uzume did with Heart Dimension."

Before any of the goddesses could ask what that meant, Magist nodded his head and gestured towards the double-helix. "Croire is correct. This is the core of Super Dimension—the very first thing that the Deity of Knowledge ever created. Throughout Biblio, the cores of all other dimensions can also be found, and they take the shape of an object determined by the Deity. For example, the core of Hyper Dimension is a game console."

Blanc was confused. "Why did you take us here? What are you planning?"

"Before that, I wish to explain what the bigger picture of my motives are, and that will lead me to explaining what we are here for." He cleared his throat and began to pace around the room. "Goddesses tend not to make close connections with mortals. This has been true throughout all of history, and I believe that this is so they won't have to deal with the pain of losing them. However, this also makes them blind to the sins of mortality."

Now, everyone was confused, but Noire spoke first. "What are you even talking about?! Just tell us directly!"

Magist let out a sigh. "Throughout history, mortals have always fought for illogical and unjustifiable reasons. In fact, not even the goddesses are safe from this conflict. Even before the invention of written language, mortals fought each other for no better reason than to take what other people had." His voice grew angrier and angrier as he spoke. "They kill each other because of petty disagreements. They hurt each other because of their greed. With their increased intelligence over other animals comes the primal desire to hurt and take from others.

The taller Neptune yelled at him, "Look, I know that humans aren't the greatest, but we aren't all bad! I had some great friends in the…"

"Silence, mortal!" The girl was stunned by Magist's sudden raise of voice and obliged his command. "You fail to see the bigger picture, as mortals always do. No matter, though. Once I am done, the volatile and hateful human will no longer exist. All that will remain is a natural utopia, pure and untainted of mortality's wars."

Uzume clenched her fist. "Are you seriously saying you're going to kill every human?!" She ran towards him. "Like hell I'll allow that!"

She swung a punch towards his face again, but he turned his head to the right and dodged the strike. With iron grip, he clutched her wrist and used his free hand to deliver a swift punch to her stomach, causing her to keel over in pain. When the CPU tried to stand back up, he wrapped his hand around her face and slammed her into the ground.

"Will that end your tantrum, goddess?" Magist dusted his hands and outstretched his palm, lifting Uzume and moving her next to Neptune through telekinesis. "Now, then. Watch as my plan is set into motion!"

Within his right hand, a white orb was forming. This orb was around the size of a basketball and had the radiance of a star, and with the energy it emitted, it truly appeared as if Magist was holding the Sun in his hand. He raised his other hand, and the orb expanded further until its diameter was about a meter. With noticeable strain, he collapsed the orb back to its original size and sustained it, holding his breath as he did so. Once he was satisfied with his work, Magist breathed heavily before turning toward the CPUs.

"In my hands, I hold the key to ending suffering throughout all of the dimensions. With this, I can completely eradicate all mortals and end their pointless wars! There shall no longer be any needless conflict or petty games over resources!" He floated a few inches off the ground before declaring, "My name is Magist. Remember it well."

The orb exploded, and with a bright flash of light, the Super Dimension was no more.


	10. Silent Vows

AN: I feel obligated to warn you that there are copious amounts of NepNowa ahead. When I say copious, I really do mean copious. You have been warned.

The CPUs fell from the air onto the balcony of Planeptune's Basilicom, forming a chaotic pile on the ground. As they struggled to get up and sort themselves out, Neptune remembered the gem in her pocket and grimaced at the thought. She quickly looked down to her pocket and saw that it was no longer glowing, but it instead radiated a faint warmth that almost felt comforting.

Neptune's thoughts were interrupted when Uzume walked over, clutching her stomach, and swiftly snatched the gem from her pocket. "Just what the hell is this, Nepsy?! A 'miniaturized Biblic Tome'?! What does that mean?"

The goddess no longer had any options but to explain—her secret had been revealed. "You remember when you found me unconscious on the ground, right? Well, before then, I had read a suspicious black book that warped me to a really weird room with Magist in it. He talked, and said that this gem would give me the power to change everything bad about my world."

ASJ, who had been listening to their conversation from the balcony door, stepped in with his hands in his pockets as usual. "So, what's the detail you have neglected to mention?" Everyone turned toward him curiously, and he nonchalantly waved to acknowledge their questioning gaze. He continued, "It's obvious that you haven't mentioned every detail. What else is there?"

She looked around at the group and gave a hideous glare completely unlike her usual personality. "He offered it to me, and told me about how much you guys hurt me. I had never realized it before, but now that I do, I had no choice but to take this!"

Noire tried to defuse the situation by adding calm words, "Calm down, Neptune! What are you trying to say?"

Neptune shot her piercing gaze over to Noire. "You know what I mean, Noire! I mean all of those times that you guys push me away without even noticing me! Or all of those times you refuse to acknowledge me just because…just because of who I am!" She heaved a few heavy breaths and slumped onto one of the benches present on the balcony.

Blanc walked over and looked Neptune in the eyes. "If it bothered you that much, why didn't you say something before? We could…"

The girl cut her off. "I didn't 'tell you before' because it wouldn't have changed anything!" Neptune's eyes had a strange green tint, the same color as the lightning that emanated from ASJ's hands when he cast the portal. "Everyone expects me to be the happy-go-lucky, ditzy, never-caring protagonist! If I ever show hurt, it just gets…cast aside…" She lowered her head in dismay and wrapped her hands around the back of her neck. "You guys only care about me because you can laugh at me…if you found someone else to make fun of, it…wouldn't matter if I died right now…"

Everyone was stunned at Neptune's sudden catharsis, and nobody knew what to say in response. Stammering, Noire did what she could, "I-I didn't think it bothered you that m-much, Neptune. I'm really sorry…will you g-give me another chance?"

"Do you actually care? Or are you just saying that so you can keep your CPU class clown around?" The girl was barely choking back tears as she walked over to the balcony. "I've always been a laughingstock among you guys. I took it lying down, and let you all push me aside like it was nothing. But…you have no idea how much it hurts…" Neptune suddenly jumped off the balcony, but after a few seconds of falling, she transformed and flew at breakneck speeds towards the east.

"Neptune!" Nepgear ran over to try and stop her sister, but it was too late—Neptune was far out of earshot. She initiated her transformation, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, Nepgear. As her sister, your words won't help this issue. I know how you feel, but this is something I have to do." Noire walked towards the edge Neptune had just jumped off of.

Uni looked on in surprise. "Noire? Why you?"

The CPU looked at her sister with fiery determination. "Because I'm the one who hurt her the most." Noire transformed and flew from the balcony in pursuit of Neptune, leaving the rest of the group in dazed silence.

Black Heart was currently flying at mach speeds over the skies of Planeptune and was approaching the nation's border. Despite Neptune's head start of about ten seconds, Lastation's trove of Shares gave its CPU the ability to fly much faster than Planeptune's, meaning that Noire was able to consistently keep her target in her field of vision. Occasionally, she tried to yell out Neptune's name and convince her to stop flying, but her cries fell on deaf ears as the distressed goddess continued to fly. At this, she felt a terrible pang in her heart—had she really been this cruel?

After about a minute of high-speed flight, Purple Heart began to descend in quite an odd place. She seemed to be approaching the grasslands near the coast, although she bore no sentimental connection to the area. Black Heart began to slow her flight, allowing Neptune some space before their awkward conversation ensued. Both goddesses touched down and deactivated their transformations, but Neptune continued to walk for a short stretch before sitting down on the grass and looking at the sky.

From about five meters away, Noire watched this with painful regret. She had no doubt that Neptune noticed her presence, and yet she made no move to even look at her. The Lastation CPU thought remorsefully about what Neptune had said before taking off, and a single tear welled in her eye as she thought of all the things she could have done differently.

"You can come out, Noire. I wanna talk to you, anyways." Neptune's voice had its usual vibrance and energy, but Noire knew this was fake.

Nevertheless, she complied with her request, walking out and taking a seat next to Neptune. An awkward and tense silence passed before the lilac-haired goddess broke the silence as usual, "I'm sorry, Noire."

Noire looked at her with an indescribable mix of emotions. In reality, she should be the one apologizing to Neptune and not the other way around, but for another, did she drag her all the way out here just to apologize?

"No, don't be sorry. I'm the one who should apologize." Noire decided to remain calm and listen to what Neptune had to say—a gesture she rarely extended in the past.

A lead lodged itself in Neptune's hair, but she made no move to extract it. "I just…I didn't know how to react when everyone was on me like that. When I broke down, I did the first thing that came to mind. I never even bothered to hear what you wanted to say." She barely choked back tears as she spoke, but it was uncertain whether she or Noire was hurting more.

"Neptune…I never knew you felt that way about us. About me, in particular. If I had only listened all those other times, things wouldn't be this way." Despite her calm demeanor, Noire was internally yelling at herself for her foolishness—how could she have brought herself to hurt a close friend like this?

"And if I had told you, I doubt things would be better." Neptune smiled, but Noire could not decipher if it was legitimate or forced. "Me being my usual goofy self has lead to a lot of great memories with everyone. Even if it hurt, I wouldn't trade those memories for the world."

There was another tense silence before Noire nervously spoke out, "I'm sorry, Neptune."

The girl in question lowered her head into her arms. "No, it's my fault. If I hadn't been that way, none of this would've happened. If only I had changed, you, Histy, and everyone else wouldn't have had to be so angry and drive me to this point. It…started and ended with me." She looked out towards the rolling waves with a certain wistfulness in her eyes.

"That's not true. It's not true. Don't ever say that again." Noire took a deep breath and looked directly into Neptune's eyes. She no longer bore the green tint. "Magist only said that to you so he could manipulate you and drive us apart. He exploited your weakness to try and…I don't know, but it's not true!"

Neptune was unmoved by this. "You don't have to try so hard, Noire. It's okay if you hate me. It's okay if you n-never want to see me again." Her voice was beginning to crack, and she was on the verge of tears. "It's okay if y-you want to f-f-forget about me. I just…I dunno a-anymore…" Unable to handle any more, Neptune stood up and began to walk away, but Noire easily caught her and held her by the wrist.

"Don't just run away from your problems! The only way things will get better is if we talk, so let's talk!" She dragged Neptune to the ground and sat next to her.

At this point, Neptune had lost all composure. "I…I don't get it. Wh-why do you c-care so much? Why do y-you still want me in your l-life?" She wiped away her tears, but the effect of this was short-lived as she simply wept more.

Noire took a deep breath. "Are you listening to me at all, or are you closing yourself off and wallowing in your sadness?" Neptune continued to cry, so after a moment of silence, Noire opened her arms and leaned closer. "Come here."

Neptune took Noire by surprise by squeezing incredibly tightly. She was shaking, and Noire tried to calm her down by rubbing her shoulder blade, but it was for naught. Neptune's tears splattered on the ground, and the accompanying sobs rang through the air and scared nearby birds into flying away.

"Noire…I don't wanna be alone…" Neptune's plea shook Noire both literally and figuratively. "I just want everyone to happy, Noire…but it hurts…it h-h…" She never managed the last word, or if she did, it was inaudible through her weeping.

"It's okay, Neptune. It's okay to cry." Nevertheless, the raven-haired goddess did what she could to ameliorate the situation. "I'm here. I promise, this will get better."

"H-how do you know…?"

A smile dashed across Noire's face before fading moments after. "I'd be a lousy CPU if I couldn't even support you. Besides, I'm sure everyone else feels the same way I do about this." She thought about how Blanc or Vert would have reacted in this situation, and for some reason, she could only imagine it ending poorly.

Neptune squeezed a little bit tighter. "Are you s-sure?" She was no longer sobbing, but her tears were still falling.

Noire confirmed this without a moment's hesitation. "Absolutely. We're here for you, Neptune. Now and forever."

There was a tense silence as Neptune stopped crying and slowly slumped backwards. She sat cross-legged and looked out towards the sea again before looking back at Noire. "I've been meaning to tell you something for a while now, actually."

"Wh-what is it?" A blush dashed across Noire's cheeks as her mind raced with all of the possibilities.

"I love ya, Noire."

Before Noire could react, Neptune planted her lips directly on hers, dying her face a bright red. The smaller girl had also wrapped her arms around her neck, adding to the tension and uncertainty in Noire's mind as various thoughts raised her attention. Without even thinking, she closed her eyes and turned her head in time with Neptune, slowly feeling her worries melt away in the passionate embrace.

The two broke away for breath, and Neptune spoke first. "Whaddya say we never tell anyone else about this?"

Noire chuckled and flipped back one of her twin-tails. "Deal, but they'll probably figure out anyway."

Neptune reached into her pocket and pulled out the black gem. She tried to crush it in her hand, and remarkably, it shattered into pieces with little effort from her. She then gathered all of the shards and threw them into the water, where the waves washed them out to sea.

"Wanna go for a little walk before heading back?" Neptune's usual energy and smile had returned.

"Sure." Noire looked at Neptune, and quietly chuckled. "You still have that leaf in your hair."

The smaller girl flustered for a moment and plucked out the foreign object before twirling it in her hand by the stem. From there, the two walked in silence along the coast, watching the waves crash into the sandy beach and wash away rocks and small creatures. From where they stood, the grass blew underneath them and faded to the sand, with brown blades on the border. Another leaf blew, this time lodging itself in Noire's hair, causing the two to laugh wholeheartedly.

Eventually, after growing tired of walking, the two sat down in the grass, facing the sea. Noire reaches and found Neptune's hand, clasping it with her own. The setting sun cast its vibrant red and orange rays along the horizon and stretched the two girls' shadows several feet behind them.

"It's so pretty…I could watch this forever." Neptune squeezed Noire's hand and inched closed to her.

"Heh, I think you're only saying that because you don't want to work."

As the wind blew and the setting sun cast its picturesque light along the sky, the two made a silent vow to themselves in unison.


	11. A Shattered Memory

After Noire and Neptune made their dramatic exit, Uni returned to the Lastation Basilicom with the intent of finishing some leftover work from yesterday and filing any new documents that had come in today. Everyone else had stayed behind in Planeptune's Basilicom for who knows what, forsaking their work for the momentary pleasure of lounging about. With a frustrated huff, Uni closed a filing cabinet and looked back at the desk in the middle of the CPU office. No matter how much of it she did, she never liked doing work—she mostly did it out of a sense of duty and, in part, a wish to fulfill her sister's expectations.

"You're quite something, CPU Candidate of Lastation."

Uni heard a voice accompanied by the fluttering of pages. Assuming that she had left the balcony door open and a gust of wind had flown in, she turned to close it, noticing immediately that it was closed. Looking to her left, she saw a cloud of pages flying of their own accord, and took a step closer.

"What are you doing here?"

The pages coalesced into a person—Magist. "I was watching you work from Biblio. You have a very strange motivation."

She glared at him and stopped listening immediately. "Why should I bother to listen to the person who tried to corrupt Neptune and roped my sister into a charade?"

His mask warped into a condescending smirk and he began to pace around the room. "Truthfully, you could simply ignore what I have to say. But I don't think you want to do that, do you? You have something that troubles you, and I have a solution."

Uni rolled her eyes and dismissed him once more, "Something that troubles me? Stop there—I've had

enough of this."

"Denial is the first stage of grief, Candidate. You've shut yourself off from the problem in an attempt to deny its existence, but there's an issue." He turned towards her and spread his arms out. "The problem…is your sister."

"What are you talking about? My sister has nothing to—"

Magist shook his head and interrupted, "She has everything to do with this. Tell me, why are you working here when all of your friends are relaxing and enjoying themselves elsewhere?"

"It's a CPU's duty to work for her people. I couldn't just slack off when there's work to be done."

"That answer, while truthful, isn't yours. I can tell." He adjusted his mask and took a seat. "The Deity of Knowledge knows everything except for two things—the first is what other people think, and the second is what the future holds. However, with the knowledge they do hold, they can make accurate predictions as to what those two things are." He crossed his arms and folded his right leg over his left. "I know that what you just told me is only a partial truth. What is the other reason?"

Uni hesitated for a moment. He was obviously trying to play her somehow, but she couldn't figure it out. "Why do you want to know?"

He chuckled and stared into her eyes. "A good question. I already know the answer." He leaned closer in his chair. "You want to impress your sister, don't you?" When Uni remained silent, Magist knew he had hit the mark. "That's right…your sister, Noire, the CPU of Lastation. A hard working, smart, powerful woman who does only the best for her people. However, there's a problem."

The Candidate grew frustrated and scowled. "And what would that be?"

Despite her anger, Magist remained calm and continued, "I told Neptune this, but pure goodness does not exist in this world. It is simply impossible. Your sister is an extremely talented woman when it comes to leading people and making important decisions—this has been proven multiple times in her time as CPU." He smirked once more. "However, as a person, she's failed everyone who ever mattered to her."

This was the final breaking point that sent Uni over the edge. "What the hell? She hasn't 'failed' anybody! What are you talking about?!"

"Look no further than yourself. Throughout your entire life, you've acted solely out of a desire to impress her and live up to her fastidious expectations. However, no matter how hard you work, it's always 'too slow' or 'not good enough'." Magist leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath, continuing, "I've seen you question your worth as a sister, alone in your room. I've seen you work tirelessly to try and improve yourself. It doesn't have to be this way."

There was a long pause before Uni began, "If Noire isn't satisfied with my results, then that's my fault. It doesn't fall on her that I can't do—"

Magist interrupted her again. "Oh, but it does. In your time as a CPU Candidate, you've filed 421,726 documents correctly, and only 3281 incorrectly in your youth. However, out of those 421,726 correct documents, Noire refused 382,160, claiming that they were done improperly somehow. Do you understand this?" He leaned his elbow on the armrest and placed especial emphasis on his words, "She's rejected 90% of your work because of her faulty standards."

The Candidate's death glare softened. "W-well…"

He smirked, continuing to pile on, "You're an exceptionally skilled markswoman. Your skill with guns is second to none, and your knowledge in the field is completely uncontested. However, after a battle, it's always 'aim straighter' or 'remember to breathe while you shoot'. Don't you get it?"

Uni had nothing to say to this, barely able to muster more words. "W-what? What do I not get?"

Magist stood up and slid the chair back to its original place. "As a CPU Candidate, you've done a remarkable job leading your nation, and you've grown into quite a likable person as well. You work for the happiness of others, and never once do you complain about your circumstances." His mask warped to a grimace, and he seemingly grew angry. "But Noire…she always finds something to criticize and scold for, no matter how well you do. She refuses your documents for errors that don't exist, and chastises your fighting style for mistakes you never made. To put it bluntly, she's holding you back from being a better person."

The Candidate tried to find something to protest about, unwilling to accept this complete lambasting of her sister. "But then…why would she ever praise my work? If she's really holding me back like that, why would she bother with compliments?"

"In this world, snakes still walk on two legs. It's a deadly cycle—she berates you and puts you down, motivating you to improve, only for a new 'error' or 'mistake' to be found." Magist clenched his fists angrily. "From her perspective, she's simply made a way for you to improve and grow, and she is technically correct. If this trajectory were to continue, you would get better and better. However…" He looked directly at her, staring into her soul. "Nobody deserves to be locked into a cycle like that."

Uni continued her efforts of dissent, but found nothing to base her argument on. She thought of all the times Noire would turn her work away without a moment's hesitation, or the times when she hid in her room to question herself.

"There's more." She was pulled out of her thinking when Magist spoke up again. "For every choice that people make, no matter how minor, a split is made in the time stream, and a new dimension is made to house the alternative path. For example, in this time stream, a child might choose a candy, but in a split dimension, he would choose a cookie." Noticing Uni's confused expression, he clarified, "In this dimension, you are obviously standing in front of me, but in a split, you died in the Golden Summit all those years ago."

She still did not understand the implications of this. "Wh-what are you saying?"

Magist's mask warped into a frown. "I'm saying that it took your death to signal to her that she hadn't appreciated you. In that time stream, she is barely a person—she wastes her days on alcohol and has completely shut herself away from people. Before that, though, we both know how she treats you."

"So what can I do about this?"

He outstretched his hand and created a large book. "Take this Biblic Tome. It is identical in structure to the one Neptune received. I see that you still have some doubt about your decision, so when you are ready, read this." Uni hesitantly took it, and Magist began to fade into pages. "Noire is returning soon. I'm afraid that you will have some explanation to do, but that is merely a handicap."

She nodded, and Magist sucked his pages into a portal leading to Biblio. The Biblic Tome shrunk down to a crystal similarly to how Neptune's did, and she stored it in her inventory to hide it. Unfortunately, it glowed brightly and fiercely, and there was no conceivable way to block the light from vision. Uni turned to face the balcony and saw Noire returning, and braced herself for the inevitable discussion.

Noire touched down on the balcony and deactivated her transformation. After stretching her arms for a few moments, she gently opened the door and entered her office. "Good to be back. How's it been…" Her sentence trailed off when she saw the light emanating from Uni's pocket and the Candidate's deathly glare. "So you accepted one too, huh?"

Uni's glare somehow worsened. "Of course. How could I not?"

The CPU pulled a chair from underneath the table and gestured for Uni to sit down. "You must be feeling a lot of emotions right now. I know Neptune certainly did. Why don't we talk about this and try to—"

"Like hell!" Noire was caught off guard by her sister's sudden yell. "We are past the talking stage by a million miles!"

"P-please, calm down! Nothing will get solved if we continue like this!" Noire did what she could to defuse the situation, but it was for naught.

"Nothing would get solved if we talked, either. Whenever we 'talk', it's always you scolding me for something I didn't do, and me just nodding my damn head along. I've had enough." Uni's eyes bore a slight green tint.

"Please, at least tell me what's wrong. I want to help you."

The Candidate scoffed and began to yell, "'What's wrong'?! What's wrong is that you don't appreciate me or anyone else! You take us for granted and care about us only when we satisfy your expectations! If we don't do something exactly to your liking, you cast us aside! Magist told me that you rejected 90% of my work, even when it was right. You had this notion of…" Uni fumbled her words and tried to figure out what to say to punish Noire the most.

Meanwhile, Noire leaked a little bit of blood into her mouth as she bit her tongue sharply. She knew that she had always been harsh on the people around her, but she had never realized the consequences would manifest themselves like this. First it was the girl she loved, and now it was her own sister.

Uni roughly shook her head, discontinuing her previous train of speech. "Magist also said that there are split dimensions for every choice we make, no matter how small. In one of those, I died in the Golden Summit." Noire winced at this, and Uni capitalized on this show of vulnerability, "It took my death to show you how little you cared about me! You needed me to die to ever care about me!"

"Th-that's not…" The goddess tried desperately to think of something to say, but she was losing herself in the truth.

"Don't even tell me that 'it's not true'! Nobody is ever good enough for you, no matter what they do! It's always 'too slow' or 'not good enough'!" Uni's voice lowered to a menacing whisper. "And I've had enough of it."

Noire lowered her head in shame. When she spoke, the only thing that emerged was a barely audible whisper, "I understand if you hate me now. I understand if you want to be alone. But please, tell me one thing…" She raised her head again and looked Uni in the eyes, noticing that the green tint was gone. "Do you…love me? As a sister?"

She received her brutal answer when Uni grabbed a precious photograph of the two goddesses at a Lastation park and proceeded to violently throw it against the wall, shattering the frame and scratching the picture. She then kicked a piece of the frame to Noire's feet and scooped up the picture, tearing it to shreds dramatically. Finalizing her crushing move, Uni walked out to the balcony and flew off, all without looking back.

"Uni…" Noire was left to sit in her office, staring at the torn remains of the picture. For as long as she could remember, that picture had been a memory of better times with her sister, and had served as a constant reminder of what she could do if she treated Uni better. Now that it was gone, Noire felt a painful twinge in her heart as she stared into space.

"I'm sorry…"

Noire's tears crashed into the desk as her words echoed in the cold room, with no one there to hear her.


	12. Discontinuation Notice

I'm writing this to tell you that this story is being discontinued.

I can hear you asking, "But why?" The answer is simple, my friend.

I failed tremendously. More importantly, I didn't deliver on my promise. This story suffered from a few major problems:

1). There were easy errors that could've been fixed with a more thorough prereading process. Stuff like the double indent in Magist's sentence in the last chapter.

2). It was too predictable. This is, unfortunately, the fate of many (story) remakes. People already know the first story. Since they do, it gets harder and harder to try and make change, since I tried to use the first story as a model. It might have been better if I just completely disregarded the first story and made a completely new one.

3). Following that last point, it was essentially the same story. I changed so little that I may as well have copy-pasted the first story, edited a little, and called it "A New Utopia". There just wasn't enough new content brought to the table to justify this remake.

4\. There wasn't a purpose to this story. Why bother remaking a story that kinda sucked to begin with? It'd have been acceptable if the first story was some gem, but after uploading it and having a few months pass, I'm not proud of it at all. In fact, I can say with confidence that it's the worst literary venture I've ever made.

The above four problems are what made this story a lackluster remake of a lackluster story. It just didn't bring anything of quality to the table. This hereby marks the end of anything with the character ASJ, unless I feel really ballsy in the future and decide to try again.

Sincerely,

The Lost Hokage


End file.
